Ultimate Rescue
by IamDragonFury
Summary: After learning from Alter Ego that their dead friends are still trapped in the twisted clutches of HPA, the six survivors of the Killing Game are told by the A.I. and Chihiro's spirit that they can go back and save them by undoing every murder. This time, Makoto intends to get EVERYONE out alive and Chihiro&Alter Ego will see him to it. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 1.

Okay, first off, this is **my first (and hopefully not my last) Dangan Ronpa fic** ever and, while I admit **I've never played the games (No Vita/PSP on hand),** I watched full playthroughs of DR 1&amp;2 on YouTube, and found the Anime online, and **loved the hell out of them**, but like many others, I was beyond pissed when **my favorite characters got killed off** **(**Especially Leon **T_T) **and as soon as I finished watching a playthrough of the second game, I was inspired. I wanted to write some fics using all of the characters, however, that's hard when the ones I wanna use the most are _dead _and **I don't just wanna do a bunch of AUs**, because the characters have to retain their memories of the first game in order for my fics to work. **I've only seen the two games and I have only vague knowledge of the Manga and DR IF**, so sorry if I leave out something that would make more sense to it, but, **just bear with me, my goal is just to have an excuse to bring the characters back to life so I can make other fics with them and stuff**. I suppose I could have gone based off the Anime...but, it seems to be unanimously agreed that the Anime doesn't do the game justice.

Anyway, as I say whenever I do a fic for something for the first time, I apologize if the characters seem OOC (though I don't usually care about that), it may take a little bit to get used to writing them. But, I'll do what I can, also, the characters will be going by their first names and nicknames, 'kay? Kay!

* * *

It was nighttime as Makoto walked into the control room, having woken up alone, and there found Kyoko at one of the computers, doing something with Alter Ego, who seemed to be emitting electronic whimpers. Her fingers moved rapidly across the keyboard, but all Alter Ego would respond with was, "Listen! Please, listen! We can go back! We have to go back!"

"Kyoko," Makoto asked, "what's going on?"

"I think Alter Ego's malfunctioning," the lavender-haired detective answered, "he's been rambling nonsensically all day."

"Listen! We can go back!" the A.I. said frantically, "Master said! Master told me! We _have_ to go back! We have to save them!"

"Go back?" Makoto responded quizzically, "Save them?"

Kyoko quickly typed "CALM DOWN, YOU'RE EXPERIENCING AN ERROR."

"No!" Alter Ego cried desperately, "It's _not _an error! I'm _not _malfunctioning! Master told me this! You have to believe me! We can go back! We can go _BACK_!"

"I don't get it," Makoto voiced, over the A.I.'s please "he's never glitched out like this before."

Kyoko shook her head puzzledly and typed, "YOU HAD BETTER GO INTO SLEEP MODE FOR A WHILE WE WILL FIGURE THIS OUT."

"But...But..." Alter Ego replied tearfully, realizing his words were falling on deaf ears, "as you wish." He stated, emitting a final sob as he powered down.

"What was that about?" Makoto wondered, "All that talk about "Master" and "going back" and "saving them"? He spoke as if he had just recently talked to Chihiro."

Kyoko thought about it for a moment.

"Hmm...it could be a glitch in his Memory Software," she said, "I don't know, I'll keep looking into it, you can go to bed if you want."

"Eh, I don't mind staying up to help," the Luckster replied, "it would be hard to sleep knowing Alter Ego was malfunctioning anyway."

Kyoko spent another hour fiddling with Alter Ego's operating system and data, while Makoto stood by in case he was needed, but no matter what, they could not find any problems with the A.I.'s programming or any of the equipment connected to it.

"Any luck?" Makoto asked.

"Everything seems to be working in order," Kyoko said, "no signs of any errors or viruses, I...I don't know what's making him act like this."

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker on and off repeatedly, much to their confusion.

Moments later, Aoi, Byakuya, Hiro, and Toko showed up in the control room.

"Guys," Aoi asked, "what's going on with the power?"

"Yes," Byakuya added, "I too would like an explanation."

"W-Why won't the lights c-come on in my room!?" Toko uttered irritatedly.

Suddenly, the computer came on all by itself, a very upset Alter Ego appearing on the screen.

"What!?" Makoto responded, "did you turn him back on?"

"I didn't," Kyoko responded, "I swear."

"Now you listen to me!" the A.I. said furiously, his electronic voice sounding deep and distorted, "Master has gone through all the trouble to reach me with information for you guys from the other side and by my Master's hands you _will _listen to what he told me to say!"

The confused group stared at the screen for the longest time, until Kyoko finally typed, "VERY WELL, YOU MAY SPEAK."

"Thank you!" the A.I. responded, back to his sweet and friendly demeanor, "Now, the day night before, Master came to me from the other side and talked to me, he said that our friends are trapped and suffering in a Limbo of Despair."

"What the hell is it talking about?" Byakuya uttered.

Kyoko then typed, "WHAT IS THIS "LIMBO OF DESPAIR"?"

"I think it would be best if I let Master explain it to you in his own words." Alter Ego stated.

Alter Ego then faded from the screen, which stayed blank for a few seconds, then finally, a new image appeared, that of a very pale-skinned Chihiro, dressed in an outfit similar to his old one, only completely gray.

"Holy F-" Aoi responded, "what is that!?"

"A ghost!?" Hiro uttered.

Kyoko was once again quick with the typing, "WHAT ARE YOU?"

"Guys...it's me..." the image spoke softly, "Chihiro Fujisaki...can you hear me?"

"Th-That can't really b-be Chihiro..." Toko responded tensely, "can it?"

"WHAT IS THIS "LIMBO OF DESPAIR" ALTER EGO MENTIONED?" Kyoko typed.

"Oh it's awful," Chihiro lamented, "the negative aura within Hope's Peak academy was so immense that all those who died and were left behind there ended up being trapped in twisted reality where we are tormented by the guilt of our actions from when we were alive."

The stunned group was silent for several seconds.

"WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE GUILTY ABOUT?" Kyoko typed in.

Chihiro then broke down in tears, "Mr. Owada," he sniveled, "it was...my fault he got executed...I...should have known better..."

This time Makoto was quick to type something in, "BUT, IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!"

"Oh, but it was!" Chihiro sobbed, "It was, I made him so angry and it led everything downhill from there, it was me, all me!"

"Enough," Byakuya voiced, "what I wanna know is, if there is really a "Limbo of Despair" that had him and the others trapped, then how is he here, talking to us right now?"

Kyoko took back the keyboard, "HOW DO YOU GET HERE, CHIHIRO?"

"I found a computer that nobody seemed to know about," the spectral Chihiro told them, "and because I am now separated from my body I merged with the computer's operating system and managed to make contact with Alter Ego. I know it sounds impossible, honestly, I'm confused about it myself even as I explain it to you guys, but trust me."

"The others are...trapped?" Aoi responded curiously.

"WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE OTHERS?" Kyoko typed.

"After making contact with Alter Ego," Chihiro said, "I managed to grab a hold of the others and have Alter Ego pull us through to reach you guys."

Everyone went silent for a moment as the screen went blank again, this time a mess of lines appeared and the computer emitted a loud static, similar to an old desktop hooking up to the internet.

The silence was then broken by a voice from the computer, "H-Hello...Makoto?" a feminine voice called, the lines warbling as it spoke, "K-Kyoko?"

"Oh my God." Kyoko uttered.

"That's...Sayaka?" Makoto voiced in shock.

"No way!" Aoi gasped.

"Guys?" Sayaka called, "Are you...there!?"

"IS THIS SAYAKA?" Kyoko typed quickly.

"Yes!" Sayaka said graciously, "Yes it's me! Holy Christ, guys it worked!"

"No shit!?" another familiar voice, this one male, chimed in, "So, they can really hear us?"

"Holy shit," Makoto uttered, "that's Leon!"

"Hey if they can hear us," yet another familiar voice called, "tell them to get us the hell out of here!" They quickly recognized it as Mondo Owada.

"Wait," Aoi suddenly said, "if...everyone's there..."

The swimmer quickly ran forward and pounced on the keyboard, quickly typing in, "PLEASE LET ME HEAR SAKURA!"

She waited as the voiced quieted down.

"Ah, Hina," the intense voice of Sakura spoke, "I was hoping you would be there."

"SAKURA!" Aoi cried, tears welling in her eyes, "I never thought I'd get to talk to you again, I've missed you so much!" she then remembered she had to type something in to get a response.

"I HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH, SAKURA!" she typed in tearfully.

"And you have no idea how much I have missed you, Hina," Sakura responded, "ever since I've been trapped in this twisted hell hole I've longed to hear your voice again."

Aoi then broke down completely, sobbing over the keyboard with mixed emotions.

"I'm sorry, Hina," Kyoko said, gently pulling the athletic girl away from the computer, "but, there's still some important questions we have to ask them."

"Okay." Hina responded, shuddering with every breath.

"SOMEBODY TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON RIGHT NOW?" Kyoko typed.

"We were all stuck in that..."Despair Limbo"," a new voice spoke, "but, now were here in the computer software, at least, for the time being."

"Wait, who's that?" Hiro wondered.

"WHO JUST SPOKE?" Kyoko typed.

"I'm Mukuro Ikusaba," the voice stated, "this is what I sound like when I'm not imitating my sister's voice."

"Oh right," Toko voiced, "h-honestly, I kinda f-forgot about her."

"We kinda _all_ forgot about her." Hiro added.

"Is there a way to get them out?" Makoto wondered.

"PUT CHIHIRO BACK ON." Kyoko typed in.

"I'm here." Chihiro's voice chimed out.

Kyoko cracked her knuckled and proceeded to type in, "EARLIER ALTER EGO WAS GOING ON ABOUT SOMETHING YOU SAID ABOUT "GOING BACK" AND "SAVING EVERYONE" CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THAT?"

"Why yes," Chihiro said, "I believe we have found a way, but you'll have to bear with us."

Just then all the other voiced began to speak out.

"Yes, please help us!" Sayaka called, "We can't stand it any longer!"

"Goddamn, I'd kill myself if I wasn't already dead!" Leon groaned.

"I want out already, this is complete and utter bullshit!" Mondo growled.

"I never knew such pain and discomfort could exist!" Kiyotaka suddenly uttered.

"It hurts, for the love of all things in both the 2D and 3D universe, it hurts so much!" Hifumi wailed.

"N-No more...I...I can't take it anymore...y-you have to help us...please!" Celestia said frantically.

"I spent all my life building my tolerance to pain, but this I can endure no longer!" Sakura growled.

The voices continued crying out for help all at once, making it harder and harder to understand them each time.

Finally, Kyoko typed, "EVERYONE CALM DOWN AND SPEAK ONE AT A TIME!"

"Sorry." they all said.

"Will you do it?" Chihiro asked, "will you help us?"

"We'd love to help, Chihiro..." Makoto voiced.

"But," Kyoko added, "we don't even know how to start."

"I'm gonna tell you that right now," Chihiro pressed, "just follow my instruction and we'll be good."

"WHAT DO WE DO?" Kyoko typed.

"Go to your beds, go to sleep," Chihiro explained, "and Alter Ego will do the rest."

The instructions confused the group of six.

"Just go to sleep," Chihiro insisted, "and listen to Alter Ego."

"What do you guys think?" Makoto voiced.

"We have to do it, right?" Hiro replied.

"Yes we have to," Aoi affirmed, "if it means we can undo it, if it means I can see Sakura again, we _must _do it!"

"I don't know," Byakuya said, "it seems a little too good to be true if you ask me."

"Well," Aoi spat, "nobody asked _you_."

"Can we really trust this?" the dignified one replied, "How do we know we're not being tricked?"

"Well," Makoto voiced, "there's only one way to find out."

"You're saying we're actually going to listen to the phantom voices on from the computer?" Byakuya questioned dubiously.

"What's wrong," Aoi retorted, "scared you won't make it out this time?"

"H-Hey!" Toko uttered angrily, "Don't you t-talk to him like that y-you Aquatic bimbo!"

"Enough!" Kyoko spoke up, "We're not going to figure anything out if you all stand here arguing, let's go back to our rooms and go to sleep, if nothing happens, then at least we'll get the rest we need."

With that, the other four left the room, leaving only Kyoko and Makoto in the control room.

"What do you think, Kyoko?" Makoto asked his lavender-haired companion.

"I don't know what to think right now," she said, "I guess we'll just have to see for ourselves."

They left the control room to return to their bedroom, were Makoto collapsed onto the bed with Kyoko following suit, as soon as she was down, Kyoko slung an arm tightly across Makoto's chest. Once again, he found himself at the mercy of Kyoko's protective embrace, same as every night; she held him with such force one would think that she was afraid someone would take him away from her in the middle of the night. While he never understood why she did it, nor could he find the nerve to question her, he simply let it be and got used to it.

Moments later, Makoto fell asleep, and then...it happened.

He found himself in a dark space the was lined wall to wall with binary numbers, the numbers in front of him suddenly forming the shape of a familiar face in front of him.

"What...Alter Ego," the Luckster voiced, "is that you?"

"Yes," the A.I. said, "I'm certain Master told you I was coming."

"He did,' Makoto replied curiously, "but, what is this? What's happening?"

"Master has blessed me with some...dare I say...supernatural upgrades," Alter Ego explained, "I can now travel through electronic devices at will and project myself into your minds when I have new information for you. The best part is that here, you don't have to type anything, we can just communicate like ordinary people."

The situation brought many questions to mind, but for now, there was only one matter of business to discuss.

"This is what everyone was talking about earlier, right?" Makoto wondered warily, "We're gonna be sent back for the others?"

The A.I. nodded in response.

"Could you define "Sent back"." Makoto requested.

"We're sending you back to the very start of the incident," Alter Ego said, "back before the game started."

"Wait," the lucky one responded quizzically, "you mean, we're going back in time? Not just back to Hope's Peak?"

"Yeah," the A.I. said, "the goal is to undo everything by stopping the kills before they happen."

"Is that even possible?" Makoto replied dubiously.

"I wouldn't know this if it wasn't possible," Alter Ego returned, "Master made it possible...I want Master to live again, to be free of that horrible void, he's suffered enough...as have the others. None of them should have had to die and you _know _it!"

The A.I.'s statement rang true with Makoto, however, the idea seemed like it would be easier said than done.

"I agree that none of them should have died," he said, "but..."

"And to do that," Alter Ego said, "you'll have to stop Junko and Monokuma in their tracks, think about it, only six of you were able to escape her before, imagine what you'll be able to do to her with _fifteen _of you."

"Well," Makoto sighed, "I sense that I don't have a choice, plus, it may be the only chance we have to save our friends from an undeserved Hell."

"So," Alter Ego responded, "you're game?"

"Yes, Alter Ego," Makoto said gamely, "yes I am."

The A.I. smiled joyfully, emitting a myriad of high-pitched beeps.

"Okay then," Alter Ego said excitedly, "hold on tight and I'll send you through with the other five. Let the download begin!"

Makoto then found himself being "downloaded", as he was pulled into the ground and sent horizontally through a bright, white void.

"Yay, my friends are going to return Master to me!" Alter Ego said to himself, "They have to, because...I won't allow them back without him."

* * *

Okay, ending it here, as I do not want to get ahead of myself to closely. I know it is a bit rushed, but, I just wanted to get to the point as quickly as possible.

I know the premise might seem confusing, I mean, I got a bit confused myself while writing it, but, hey, it _is _fan _fiction_ after all, and the games themselves had pretty crazy scenarios, so why not going through time?

I can only hope this ends up being at least adequate.


	2. Chapter 2

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 2.

**Sorry about the sudden changes, I just could not stop thinking that this story needed a massive revision, so, here it is. A full revision, or at least a revision of what I think was needed.**

Also, I don't know how old the survivors were supposed to be in Dangan Ronpa 2, they first appeared to be the same age they were in the first game, but I thought they looked older at the end of it. Regardless, from this fic on(provided I do more) they will end up being the ages they were in the first game.

This definitely will not repeat the first game word for word scene for scene, a few shortcuts will be taken.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity of being pulled through a blurry void, Makoto finally regained the feeling in his body and upon waking up, he lifted his head and found himself in a familiar setting. The very classroom he had awoken in when he arrived at Hope's Peak Academy the first time.

"Wha-this is..." he stammered wearily, "am I really back?"

Makoto carefully stood up from the desk he was siting in, holding onto it for balance as he waited for the dizziness to subside. He then heard a beeping sound from his pocket, he reached in and pulled out his phone, the screen of which displayed the satisfied face of Alter Ego.

"It's as I told you Mr. Naegi," the A.I. said, "I sent you back to the beginning. Now, you and the other five will be the only ones who know what's going on initially, the others however will not, they won't even remember this happened in the first place. But, that's okay, I downloaded the memories of everyone who was involved in the Killing Game dead and alive by analyzing the minds of you survivors and the spirits of the deceased. The goal is to restore the lost memories to everyone who fell victim to the game and prevent the killings from happening, but, be careful, if we mess up at all, be it by allowing someone to kill or by getting found out too early, we'll have to start back at the beginning."

"And you're absolutely _sure _this will work?" Makoto wondered.

"It will work, it has to!" Alter Ego responded, "Master said it would and Master is always right."

"But, how does Chihiro-" the Luckster tried to ask.

"Don't. Question. It." Alter Ego stated in a rather firm tone.

The A.I.'s sudden outspokenness baffled Makoto, but, he knew that he did not have time to sit around and dwell on it.

"When it's time to return someone's memories or you want to show them something important, just present your phone and I'll take it from there," Alter Ego explained, "I already explained it to the other five, so you're all up to speed on the plan. Now get going, you remember where to find everyone."

Makoto nodded and started to put his phone in his pocket, however, he had one last thought.

"Wait," he asked, "Alter Ego...how'd you get past Junko and Monokuma, also, how are we now able to talk without me having to type anything in?"

"Oh, well, supernatural reasons...don't worry about it." the A.I. replied simply.

With that, Makoto put his phone away and left the classroom, making his way to find the others. As he walked, he could not help but survey the area around him, somehow, despite already having seen it before, the halls of Hope's Peak still disturbed him.

Eventually, he found everyone in the same place he had met them the first and just as Alter Ego said, they all, minus the five survivors from the first time, they reacted as if they were meeting him for the first time. So many thoughts and emotions ran through his mind as he looked at everyone who had died standing in front of him alive, there was so much he wanted to say, but, Alter Ego's instructions forbade it, he could not say anything about their previous situation, lest it jeopardize the mission.

All Makoto could do was play along with the situation and go along as he did the first time, reintroducing himself to everyone he already knew, one by one. He managed to get away with greeting Sayaka by name by reminding her that they went to middle school together, a memory she had retained from before.

"Helloooo," the Junko disguised Mukuro greeted him, "I'm Junko Enoshima, pleased to meet ya!"

"H-Hello, Mu...uhh..._Junko_," Makoto replied, almost saying her real name, "nice to meet you."

Thankfully, she did not seem to notice his near name slip.

When the introductions and discussion of how they ended up in their current situation was all over, they heard a strange chiming sound and a voice, which Makoto and the other five survivors from last time recognized as Monokuma's, telling them to report to the gym.

While the fifteen teenagers made their way to the gym, the six survivors stayed at the back of the group.

"So, it really worked," Byakuya voiced quietly, "we've really been sent back in time. Of course, for all I know, this could just be a lucid dream."

"I don't know," Yasuhiro responded, "this feels a little too real to be a dream."

"Man," Hina groaned, "it's killing me not to be able to say anything to Sakura. I hate being around my best friend again when she doesn't even remember that she's my best friend."

"Don't worry, Hina," Makoto said, "it'll be time before you know it."

"Shh," Kyoko hissed, "be careful, don't let them hear you."

They continued on silently, until everyone made it to the gymnasium, only to soon be greeted by Monokuma.

While the nine teens who had fallen victim to the game before reacted as they did the first time, the six who had already lived it could only stand and wait for the monochrome bear to finish his speech. While their clueless friends panicked over the announcement of the killing game, the six Future Foundation members huddled together.

"Damn," Hina sighed anxiously, "I wish we could just tell them now and get it over with."

"If we spill everything now we'll call too much attention to ourselves," Kyoko told her as quietly as she could, "we have to go about this carefully and avoid rousing Junko's suspicion."

"S-So," Toko murmured, "for now, w-we'll just have to p-play along."

"Come on, guys," Mondo suddenly called to them, "are you gonna help us investigate this place or not?"

"Yeah," Makoto replied, "we'll help."

"Even though we don't really need to." Yasuhiro casually uttered.

"Now, now, Hiro," Aoi quickly said to him, "don't say that, you _don't. Know. That_."

"Right, right," the Shaman replied awkwardly, "well then, let's get to it."

The six then proceeded to explore the academy with their friends, even though they already knew Hope's Peak Academy from the ground up.

They spent the entire day re-exploring the school and trying to ease their classmates worries without giving themselves away. Though he did not want to admit, Makoto was trying his hardest to avoid spending too much time around Sayaka, remembering how their interactions played out the first time. Not that he really held any ill-will against her, it was just hard for him to be near her without thinking about that horrible outcome.

"Hi, Makoto," she said at one point, "do you wanna-"

"Sorry, Sayaka," he replied quickly, yet politely, "but...Kyoko kinda needs me right now, we have a lot of things to talk about, but, I might catch you later."

"Oh," she responded, visibly disappointed, "okay then, I hope we can talk later."

Of course Makoto felt bad for turning her away, but, he just did not want to risk messing anything up or giving anything away.

Near the very end of their reinvestigation, Kyoko pulled Makoto aside and whispered, "You remember what the first incentive is and when we get it, right?"

"Yeah," Makoto replied, "how could I forget?"

"Though you've already seen it, you need to at least try to pretend that you have not," the sleuth advised, "I fear a lack of reaction would instantly get Monokuma's and Junko's attention."

"I-I'm not really good at acting, Kyoko." the Luckster responded quietly.

"Just _try_," Kyoko insisted, "when you see that DVD, just think of all the worst things you have ever seen so far, anything that would make you disturbed and uncomfortable. Got it?"

"Yeah, I'll...try." Makoto said.

"Also," the lavender-haired detective said, "try not to avoid the others the entire time, that might raise some red flags with...well...everyone, we can talk to everybody, we just can't tell them what we know yet...got it?"

The Luckster nodded understandingly.

"Good," Kyoko replied, "well then, I think it's time to regroup with the others."

Several minutes later the kids were called back into the gym by Monokuma, who had yet another special announcement, which the six survivors were already prepared for.

"Here we go." Hina said tensely.

Just like last time, the two-toned bear appeared and gave his speech regarding their first motives, after which they were sent away. The six survivors went to the AV room first, only to have a curious Sayaka follow them as well, they found the box of DVDs, which Sayaka commented on as she did the first time.

"I'll let the others know!" Sayaka announced, before leaving the room.

"We don't really have to watch these do we?" Hina wondered, her voice going quieter as she spoke, "I mean, we've already seen them."

"You know we won't get away with not watching them," Byakuya replied, "Monokuma would be on us in an instant."

The six of them proceeded to get it over with and play the horrific DVDs they had already seen before, acting as much as they could that they were seeing them for the first time. Makoto waited patiently for his DVD to reach its end and while he already knew how it ended, it was still hard to watch.

Just as they all finished watching their DVDs, the other nine students arrived in the room.

"Oh, you guys watched yours already?" Chihiro inquired.

"Yeah," Hina said, "we did, they...were hard to watch."

The others proceeded to grab the labeled discs and view them, each one of them reacting as shocked as they did the first time around.

"You know what happens next, yes?" Kyoko asked Makoto.

"Yeah," he said, "Sayaka completely loses it."

"This is the part where you go and talk to her about her DVD," she told him, "I know you already know its contents, but, she doesn't know that, so just go along as if you know nothing, like we have already been."

"Got it." Makoto said, making to leave the room.

"One more thing," Kyoko voiced, "do _not_ tell her about us, in fact, don't tell _anyone _about us."

"What?" the lucky one responded curiously, "Why not?"

"Because, for all they know this is the first time we've all met," Kyoko explained, "by this point we would still be without our memories, if people knew we were together it would mean that we still had our memories and it would surely get Monokuma and Junko's attention."

Makoto nodded understandingly.

"Our goal is to protect them," Kyoko said, "if we're going to get everyone out this time, we have to be smart about it."

"Got it." Makoto stated.

"Good," the sleuth girl replied, "now go play nice with Sayaka...but not too nice."

Makoto nodded again and went to track down Sayaka, and as he went his thought, "_God, so many rules and precautions to follow, can we really do this?_"

* * *

Okay, hopefully this goes much smoother than before.


	3. Chapter 3

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 3.

Here we go, time for the survivors to prevent the murders.

I left the time sequence ambiguous because I figured it would be pointless to constantly point out how much time has passed exactly. Plus, with the fact that history is being altered, the sequence is destined to change anyway.

* * *

Makoto ventured through the hallway to find the classroom that he knew Sayaka would be hiding in from last time. Sure enough, he got it right, as he found her cowering at a desk, looking horrified and ghostly white.

"Sayaka," he spoke softly, "you there?"

The only response he got was fearful squeak.

"It's okay," Makoto assured her carefully, "everything's going to be okay."

"No!" the blue-haired singer shrieked, "You can't say that, you don't know that!"

Now to take a stab at, and fail at, damage control.

"But, it _will _be okay," he said, "whatever you need, I'm here for you."

Sayaka looked unsure.

"Whatever I need?" she replied quizzically.

Makoto nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, it's awful," the lucky one said aimlessly, "we're all on edge and I know you're worried about what Monokuma might do to your band mates, but-" he stopped as soon as he realized what he said.

Sayaka looked at him intently.

"How...did you know...that my DVD...involved my group?" she asked tensely.

"_Oh shit, oh shit,_" Makoto thought frantically, "_what the hell do I say?_"

"Um, well," he said as reserved as possible, "I just thought it was obvious, you know, 'cause, you are the "Ultimate Idol", so I just figured your band was the most important thing to you."

Sayaka nodded in response.

"Yeah," she affirmed, "yeah it is, my group is most important, my music is my life, and...and...I will do anything, _anything_, to get back to it! I have to get out! I WILL GET OUT!"

She tried to run from the room, but, Makoto quickly grabbed her by the wrist.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" he said quickly, "Hold on!"

Sayaka struggled briefly, but then stopped and looked at him sadly.

"Look," Makoto said calmly, "it's horrifying, I know, everyone is worried and afraid, but, we _need _to keep it together, we can't let it get to us."

Sayaka just kept looking at him.

"There's no reason for you or anyone to do anything drastic," the lucky one added, "if you do, then, you're just playing into Monokuma and Ju...ust whoever is behind all this's game."

"I get what you're saying," the idol said quietly, "but...what else can we do?"

"We keep our heads and stick together," Makoto assured her, "we can't let them intimidate us!"

Sayaka looked down as if she was considering it.

"I hear you." she responded.

Makoto carefully let go of her wrist, then she slowly turned and walked out of the room.

As soon as she was gone, Byakuya showed up at the door.

"So, how'd that go?" he asked.

"It seemed to go okay," Makoto answered, "she definitely calmed down faster this time than last time."

"Well, best keep an eye on her yet," Byakuya affirmed, "I wouldn't count on words alone to keep her from attempting murder."

As bad as it sounded, Makoto knew that the scion was not wrong, after all, the first time around he had been as reassuring as he could get for her and she _still _decided to try and kill someone.

"Right, I'll stick to it." he stated.

* * *

Just a little bit later, while everyone, save four the six Killing Game veterans, were stressing over the threatening DVDs, Makoto once again went to find Sayaka. hoping to talk some (more) sense into her, before she tried anything drastic like last time.

However, on his way, he ran into Chihiro.

"Hello, Makoto." the programma said.

"Hey, Chihiro," he replied casually, "how are you doing?"

"Pretty well," Chihiro answered, "all things considered."

Despite the arrangement, Makoto felt it grating to keep all his information from Chihiro, seeing as it was him who made the "re-try" possible.

"Scary things, huh?" the Luckster said, "What with those DVDs."

As Makoto wondered if would truly hurt to let Chihiro in on what was going on, the unexpected happened.

"I saw Sayaka head for the hallways," the programmer informed him, "I think you'll find her in her room. You should hurry while you can, she looks pretty shaken up."

"Okay, but..." Makoto responded, "how did you know I was looking for Sayaka?"

Chihiro looked around as if seeing if anyone else was around.

"Also, I'm pretty sure Leon is hanging out around the entrance," he affirmed, "it would probably be wise to talk to him as well."

That statement roused suspicion in Makoto.

"Chihiro, do you..." he started to ask.

"Shhhh..." Chihiro responded quickly, raising a hand to the lucky one's mouth, "now's not the best time to talk, you best get to speaking to the others."

It was then Chihiro actually began to physically push Makoto further on his way.

"Go on, now," he insisted, "people need you."

The dubious Makoto then began to continue on his way.

"Good luck, sir," Chihiro called after him, "I know you'll get us all out...this time."

* * *

After his encounter with Chihiro, Makoto found himself at the area that lead To all other parts of the first floor and there, he stopped in his tracks.

Remembering Chihiro's questionable words, a thought came to his mind:

Sayaka or Leon, which one should he talk to first? Or, more so, who needed help more?

One faced a slow, most likely painful death, the other faced a gruesome, definitely agonizing execution.

One needed dissuasion the other one needed a warning.

Of course he briefly considered speaking to them both at the same time, but, he quickly dismissed that idea. One, because he figured that it would be the wrong time to convince anyone to be alone together and two, because he figured that it would call attention to the survivor's plan.

"Leon," Makoto mused, looking in the direction of the entrance, then towards the dorms, "or Sayaka? Leon or Sayaka? God, I'm probably overthinking this."

After another minute of thinking, Makoto made up his mind and quickly headed for the school's entrance.

Sure enough, just as Chihiro said, Leon was there by the overly-secured door, looking it over, presumably looking for a weak point. He was muttering something about "having to get out."

Makoto felt nervous about approaching the baseball player, or anyone else, unexpectedly in the current moment of time, however, he also felt it would be better than simply leaving them alone after what happened last time. He carefully approached the anxious athlete, though as he did, he accidently tripped on his shoelace that he failed to see was untied.

His involuntary shriek as he hit the ground got Leon's attention.

"Neh, what are you doing?" the athlete responded tensely, "You can't just go sneaking up on people like that!"

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to." Makoto said, fumbling with his shoelace.

"Then, what _were _you trying to do?" Leon questioned.

"Nothing bad, I swear," the Luckster said as he stood up, "I was just looking to talk to someone, all this...craziness has got me eager for a distraction."

The baseball player looked at the door then back at him.

"I don't...wanna talk...about my DVD." he stated flatly.

"Well, neither do I," Makoto replied, "which is exactly why I was looking for distraction."

"Okay, but, why with me?" Leon wondered.

"Um, well...why not?" Makoto said simply in return.

The athletic one thought about it briefly.

"'Kay, then." he shrugged.

"So, um, first off," Makoto asked, "what do you think? How do you feel about...all of us?"

"What do ya mean?" Leon responded.

"I mean...what do you think of everyone?" Makoto offered, "Does anyone come off as strange? Suspicious? Threatening?"

The baseball player scratched his head curiously.

"I dunno," he said, "I've been a little too worried about other things than about what everyone else is like, though, not so worried that I'm about to let my guard down."

"Really," Makoto responded dubiously, "you wouldn't let your guard down for _anyone_ here? _Anyone _at all?"

"No...pretty sure." he affirmed.

The Luckster fought to repress a sigh of frustration.

"Well, to be sure, I think we should hammer it in," he said, "if at some point someone randomly invites you to their room, do not accept, especially if it happens at night, if someone invites you to their room, in any way, shape or form, no matter who it is, _do not accept_!"

"I get it." Leon responded.

"I mean it," Makoto pushed, "no matter _who _it is, no matter what reason they give you, do not accept anyone invitation to their room alone! I mean it!"

"I get it," the athlete groaned, "geez, you act like something for sure is going to happen."

"I'm just trying to make a point," the lucky one sighed, "tread lightly here, try to keep it together, and don't fall for anything that seems shady."

* * *

Sometime later, when Makoto was done talking to Leon, he left the confused baseball player where he was and decided it was time to talk to Sayaka again.

However, on his way, he ran into Kyoko.

"Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," Makoto answered, "I just finished talking to Leon and now I'm going to talk to Sayaka."

"I see, I guess it would make sense to talk to him as well." the sleuth replied.

"Also..." Makoto voiced, "I think...Chihiro _might _now what's going on, like I think he knows this is a repeat."

Kyoko thought about it.

"Really?" she mused, "That...doesn't seem to unlikely, given that he was the one who made this possible, plus, if he remembers the previous round, then that may guarantee his safety."

"Should I talk to him about?" Makoto wondered, "Maybe having him involved will make things easier for us."

"Give it a night," Kyoko voiced, "then, if you can get him away from the others, talk to him about it. Right now, we have a crisis to avert, it probably won't be much longer."

He ran to the hallway and straight to Sayaka's dorm room door, once there, he began to frantically ring the doorbell.

After a brief pause, Sayaka opened the door, only enough for half her face to be visible, still looking miserable.

"Hey there." he said to her.

She waved silently in return.

"Can I come in?" Makoto asked.

She nodded and opened the door all the way for him.

"So, it's already our first night here," he voiced, "I gotta admit, I don't know if I'll be able to get much sleep, if any."

Sayaka said nothing, sitting completely silent on her bed.

"Then again, who would be able to sleep," Makoto added, "after what we saw?"

"I can't." Sayaka said quietly, "I can't stay here."

"Uh, Sayaka-" The lucky one began to respond.

"I WON'T!" the singer shrieked.

Makoto flinched as Sayaka snatched him by his jacket.

"I CAN'T STAY HERE, MAKOTO!" she screamed in hysteria, "I WANNA GET OUT! I _HAVE_ TO GET OUT! DON'T YOU GET IT!" Makoto did not know what to do or say as Sayaka violently shook him back and forth, all he could do was throw his hands out and grab her by the shoulders to make her stop.

"Stop it!" he uttered, bringing the idol to an abrupt stop, "Sayaka...but, I'm at a loss on how to help you, all I can do is offer you my support, I want to help, all I've been trying to do is help, but, you need to calm..." he stopped talking upon realizing that his words were having little to no effect on Sayaka. "I don't know what else I can say or do for you, Sayaka," he sighed, "I just...don't want you to get hurt, I don't want _anyone_ to get hurt, I want us all to get out and we can...just be smart."

With nothing else to say, Makoto turned towards the door, though, just as he reached for the knob, it happened.

"Makoto," Sayaka asked informally, "if it's not to much trouble, do you think you could...maybe...switch me rooms for the night."

Makoto tensed as a new found discontent entered his mind.

"Why?" he responded more sternly then he meant to.

"Oh, I don't know," she replied casually, "I just...feel like I'd be safer there."

Makoto could not help but grab the bridge of his nose in frustration as he prepared to respond with questions he knew he should have asked the first tome around.

"I don't know, Sayaka," he replied, chagrinned, "why would you feel safer in my room when you have the room with a lock on your bathroom door? Also, if you truly are afraid, then wouldn't you be just as scared in a different room by yourself? Wouldn't it make more sense to share a room with someone if you were really scared?"

"I-I know it doesn't make sense," Sayaka stammered, "b-but, I don't know, I just feel, like, I'm not safe here. You're the only one I feel ready to trust right now."

_Trust, _that word discouraged him, last time he had trusted her to a fault and she _knew _it; thinking back on it, he could not help but be upset. Makoto hated feeling so angry with her, but, how could he not, after what happened last time? Now, she was doing it again, even after everything he had said to try and disadvise her.

There was nothing more he could do now.

"You know what," he sighed, "fine, take my room for the night, I don't know what your deal is, but, whatever, if it'll make you happy."

"Thank you, Makoto." she said happily.

"Just so you know," he said, "the door to my bathroom is misaligned and gets stuck, if you want in you have to turn and left the handle."

Sayaka nodded in response, to which Makoto turned away and rolled his eyes; at that, he reluctantly handed over the key to his room and sent her on her way.

"_I guess there's a chance she may not go through with it_," he thought to himself, "_but, who am I kidding? I can't hold onto that chance."_

"If I can't talk her out of it," Makoto said aloud to himself, "then I'll just have to thwart her, I have to do something, otherwise she'll..."

Just then a realization came to his mind.

"Wait, I didn't take the sword like I did last time," he gasped, "shit!"

Remembering that the sword is what gave Leon the advantage in Sayaka's struggle last time, the fact that it was not in his room this time made him feel that it could change the outcome of the attack, which there most likely would be, this time. He would have to stay very alert through the course of the night.

"Let's see," Makoto said to himself, "if I remember right, last time around, Sayaka died at 1:30 a.m." He looked at his cellphone and found that the time was 9:59, which quickly became 10:00 p.m., and just like last time...

"Attention Students," Monokuma announced over the monitors, "it is now 10:00 p.m., nighttime is now in effect, sleep tight, upupupup!"

"I have to stay awake," Makoto sighed, "just in case."

* * *

Makoto sat anxiously at the desk in Sayaka's room, watching time tick by on his phone; he fought hard to stay awake, avoiding eye contact with the painfully inviting bed. He wanted so badly to stay at his door and keep a look out for Sayaka or Leon, but, he was afraid that if he did that and got caught, then _he _would end up looking suspicious himself.

One thing he was certain of was that if Sayaka was going along with the plan she had last time, then she would be initiating it at that very moment.

Suddenly, his phone started buzzing and he quickly answered it.

"Hello?" he answered quietly, worried that he could caught by Monokuma.

"Makoto," it was Aoi, who was also speaking in a quiet tone, "heads up, one of the knives is missing from the kitchen, same one as last time."

His heart sunk deeply.

"And...I suppose you saw..." he said dismally.

"Unfortunately, yeah," Aoi sighed, "better stay alert, if she's already made it back, it won't be much longer before it goes down."

After saying goodbye, Makoto quickly hung up the phone and ran to the bedroom door, which he slowly opened. Upon finding nobody in the hallway, he stepped out and looked at the doors to his and Sayaka's rooms, sure enough, just like last time, the nameplates had been switched.

"Dammit!" he groaned.

* * *

I could have made that longer, but, because this is a revision, chapters may not be the same length as they were before.


	4. Chapter 4

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 4.

Moving on with revisions, whee!

* * *

Acting quickly, while nobody was around, Makoto switched the nameplates back to their correct placements.

Pleased with his quick reaction, he let out a sigh of relief and frustration.

Makoto knew that with the correction of the nameplates, Leon was sure to end up in Sayaka's actual room with him, thus hopefully sparing him and Syaka from the latter's failed attack. However, he was unsure of how to go on from there, of course, he knew he would have to confront Sayaka, but, what then? He did not dismiss the possibility that Sayaka would attack him if he did not play it smart or take another shot at killing some time later.

Regardless of his worries, all he could do now was wait.

He made sure the door to the room was unlocked before sitting back down at the table.

Just then, his phone lit up with message from Kyoko, reading:

"Is everything okay?"

He replied back:

"Sayaka switched rooms with me, took the knife, and switched the nameplates on our doors, but, I switched them back."

She replied:

"Good man."

He replied:

"What do I do next? Leon's going to end up in Sayaka's room with me and I'm gonna have to confront Sayaka. So, what do I do, Kyo?"

She replied:

"At that point, the only logical thing, tell them the truth, give them back the memories that were taken from them."

He replied:

"Do I really need to make them see what happened the first time? There's no telling how they'll react."

She replied:

"Their distress is imminent, they'll be upset, horrified, probably even hurt, but, if we're going to get everyone out alive and tip the odds to our favor against Junko and Monokuma, then the best way to do it is by making them overcome the despair of what happened last time and resist the despair Junko's trying to cause this time."

He replied:

"You really think that'll work?"

She replied:

"I thought it made sense, if we do this right, then we can make them focus all their negative feelings toward Junko and Monokuma, seeing as all of this is their fault in the first place."

"Well, when you put it that way, I guess it could work."

She replied:

"Right, and, you know if something goes wrong, Alter Ego can just start everything over."

He replied:

"I know, I just really don't want it to have come to that."

She replied:

"Right, best of luck then."

He replied:

"Thanks...love you."

She replied:

"...Love you, too."

With that, their "conversation" ended.

Makoto put his phone away and slumped down in his chair, watching time go by once again.

Soon enough, he heard the knob to Sayaka's bedroom door rattle, as soon as he heard that he ran to the door and tore it open, finding a very confused and understandably surprised Leon.

"Leon!" Makoto uttered.

Before the baseball player could respond, Makoto hastily pulled him into the room and shut the door behind.

"Makoto, what's going on?" he questioned curiously, "Where's Sayaka?"

"Before we get to that," Makoto voiced, "what are you doing? Didn't you say earlier that you weren't about to let your guard down for anyone?"

The conscious-stricken athlete rubbed his head awkwardly.

"I know." he sighed.

"What about our talk earlier?" Makoto continued, reminiscent of a disappointed parent, "You know, about not accepting invitations to anyone's room, no matter what their reason was? Did you not get how dangerous that was?"

"I know!" Leon snapped.

He then seemed to take a more submissive demeanor.

"I get it, okay, I know I shouldn't have risked it," the baseball player said contritely, "but, I couldn't help it...it was _her_ man, I just wanted to talk to her."

Naturally, Makoto sympathized with him, he knew that his old self probably would have fallen for the same trap. The fact that he would open answer his door for somebody unannounced in the middle of the night made him wonder how he made it out alive the first time.

"I understand," Makoto sighed, "believe me, I knew her a long time ago, if I didn't know what was gong on, I'm sure I would've made the same mistake."

Leon looked on meekly.

"What_ is_ going on?" he asked softly, "Why are _you_ in _here_?"

Makoto inhaled and exhaled deeply, now for the discouraging part.

"Sayaka insisted on switching rooms with me," Makoto said, "I tried, I reall did, but, I couldn't talk her out of it."

Leon said nothing as he listened.

"She went to the cafeteria and...got a knife," Makoto continued hesitantly, "then she...switched the nameplates on our doors...to get you into the wrong room...and..."

"She was going to kill me." the baseball player said soberly.

Makoto looked on condolingly.

"But, why?" Leon wondered.

"She just wants out so badly-" Makoto started.

"No, that part I get," the athlete voiced, "but, I mean, why me? Why did she wanna kill _me_?"

Makoto had a theory, but, it seemed so cruel that he could not bring himself to voice it.

"If it's any consolation, which it probably isn't," he offered, "she tried to do it in my room to frame me so she could get away with it."

"What the fuck!?" Leon uttered, "Why? I get that she wants out, but, what reason would she have to frame _you_? Aren't you guys friends?"

"That's exactly why she tried to do it," Makoto said, his frustration growing as he spoke, "she knew she could persuade me to switch rooms and she knew I would probably be willing to take the fall for her, the first time around that is."

"God, man, that sucks," the baseball player responed, "but, wait...what do you mean by the 'first time around', that makes it sound like this has already happened before."

There was no going back now.

"Well, I have to do this now." Makoto said.

He pulled out his phone and summoned Alter Ego.

"Just...look at this," the Luckster said, handing Leon his phone, "then, you'll know everything you have to."

"Remember..." Alter Ego said in distorted voice.

As Leon looked at the phone, a bright, green light emitted from it, pulling the athlete into a trance like state as every memory that had been taken from him was returned. Every memory from the two years they had at the academy and every event from the first time through the killing game that he had experienced, along with the events he had missed following his execution, all of it filed into his mind like data downloading into a computer. All the while, Makoto waited with anticipation.

As soon as it was done, Leon, silent and with a blank expression on his face, dropped the cellphone.

"Leon?" Makoto spoke gingerly, carefully walking toward him, "Leon? Did you see?"

The baseball player nodded slowly.

"Do you remember anything?" Makoto asked.

The athlete shook his head and rubbed his eyes, though Makoto could not tell whether he was trying to recover from the memory restoration or to conceal tears.

"E-Everything." he said quietly.

Makoto picked up his cellphone.

"Stay here," he advised, "I have to do the same to Sayaka."

"Alone?" Leon responded, still quiet, "Not sure if that's a good idea."

"It'll be fine," Makoto said, "I know what I'm up against this time and Sayaka wouldn't hurt me."

The baseball player looked on doubtfully as the lucky one left the room.

Makoto stepped in front of the door to his room, where Sayaka was waiting, armed and probably hysterical.

"_It'll be fine_," he thought to himself, reaching for the doorknob, "_framing is one thing, but, Sayaka wouldn't actually try to kill **me,** right? She's never...right_?"

Makoto carefully turned the knob and opened the door, seeing nothing in front of him, aside from the stand that held the decorative sword he took last time; despite his confidence, he could not help but feel slight regret for not taking the sword again, just in case. Given the circumstance, he figured that Sayaka had to have been standing out of site, hoping to take Leon by surprise once he came to the room. However, this time, Leon would not be the one she faced.

Slowly, Makoto walked further into the room and just as he reached the stand, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He jumped upon hearing Sayaka screamed as she came at him with her knife ready.

"Sayaka, don't!" he yelled quickly.

Sayaka stopped in front of him, with the knife inches from his throat, her eyes heavy with hysteria.

"Why...did you...come back here?" she questioned haltingly, "You're going...to ruin...everything!"

"Your plan is already ruined Sayaka, I knew about it all along," Makoto voiced earnestly, "I was told that you took the knife, I saw that you switched the nameplates on the door, and I know that you tried to lure Leon here so you could kill him and frame me for it in hopes of getting out of here."

Sayaka looked on in shock and anger, her armed hand trembling.

"No one is getting killed," Makoto said calmly, reaching into the pocket for his cellphone, "not to night, not tomorrow, not at all; now, just let me-"

Before he could react, Sayaka lunged at him and pinned him against wall.

"Wha...Sayaka!?" Makoto gasped.

He tensed as she looked at him with pure rage.

"I...WANT...OUT!" she screamed.

Right then, to the Luckster's horror, she raised her knife again and thrust it toward him; Makoto managed to twist away, barely avoiding taking the knife to his chest. The knife ended up lodged in the wall and as Sayaka struggled to remove it, Makoto stood away from her and tried once again to get his phone.

"Sayaka, please stop," he implored, "this isn't like you, in any other situation, you wouldn't do this! You wouldn't hurt your friends!"

Sayaka tore the knife from the wall and turned back around, with the knife aimed in her old friend's direction.

"Friends, yeah?" she responded intently, "You said you'd so anything for me, you said that you'd get me out of here, yes?"

The singer charged at the Luckster once again and Makoto quickly dove over the bed, dropping his phone on the ground by mistake.

"If you were really my friend and you wanted to help me get out," Sayaka asserted, "then you'd lie down and die so I could get out of here! It's the only way!"

"But, it's not!" Makoto yelled, backing into the bathroom door.

As Sayaka crawled over the bed, Makoto anxiously fumbled with the knob to his bathroom door and got it open, then shut himself inside.

"You need to stop and listen, Sayaka!" he pleaded desperately, "This isn't the answer and you'd know that if you knew what was going on, please, listen!"

Then, the door flung open and revealed Sayaka standing behind it with her knife.

"I've listened long enough, Makoto," she said miserably, "I'm through with being fed false hope and blind optimism, I'm sorry, but, I have plans and they don't involve this place!"

As she walked toward him, Makoto stumbled backwards into his shower.

"I promise, just give me one moment and I'll-" he dug into his pocket, only to discover his phone was missing and it was then that he noticed he had dropped it on the floor, in the room, next to bed, far out of reach, "shit, no, Sayaka, please-"

She bore the knife toward him once again and with no other option, Makoto grabbed her wrist with both hands, stopping it in its path, but, flinched at the blade caught his skin. Both pairs of hands trembled violently as they fought to overpower the other.

"Please, don't." Makoto begged quietly, involuntarily sinking to the ground.

"I have to;" Sayaka replied in the same tone, "I can still get away with it, there's nothing suspicious about dying in your own room."

An onset of tears caused Makoto's vision to blur as his arms began to give out, his heart rate increasing as he realized he was about to die in the same place Sayaka had the first time around and by her hands no less. He began to imagine the others finding his bloodied corpse in the shower and having Monokuma announce it over the P.A. system, investigating his death with a very pissed and very devastated Kyoko, and having a class trial to put it all together, all the while, his friends who had survived before would be wondering what went wrong.

All of a sudden, Sayaka pulled away, no, she was pulled away by someone else.

"Are you okay, Makoto?" someone asked.

He looked up and found Chihiro standing in front of him, the programmer grabbed his hands and helped him stand up.

"Let go of me!" Sayaka yelled.

Makoto looked out the door and saw Leon holding Sayaka firmly to keep her from moving.

"Stop," the baseball player said, "just, stop already!"

Makoto quickly picked up his phone, but, then noticed Chihiro take out his own phone and present it to Sayaka, apparently doing what Makoto had just done to Leon. Just the same, Sayaka seemed to go into the same trancelike state Leon had when his memory was restored. As soon as it was over, Leon cautiously released the overwrought idol and she immediately seated herself on the bed.

"_Are _you okay?" Leon asked Makoto.

"I-I'll live." the rattled Luckster replied.

"You're bleeding." Chihiro said tensely, holding up Makoto's hand so he could see.

Makoto put his uninjured hand over his open wound, not wanting to deal with it at the moment.

"I get why Leon's here," he voiced, "but, what are you doing here Chihiro?"

"Obviously, you could probably tell that I knew what was going on from the first time," Chihiro, expressed, "if you couldn't, then, just so you know, I knew what was going on form the first time. Anyway, I got concerned, because I knew it was getting close to the time Sayaka died last time, so I left my room to investigate and ran into Leon. When he told me what was going on, we both got worried, so we came to see what was happening."

"Well, I'm still kind of confused, but, I am glad you guys showed up when you did." Makoto sighed.

He turned his attention back to the despondent Sayaka, who was still sitting on his bed in silent tears, with Leon standing next to her. She was mumbling incoherently, though, Makoto was able to make out utterances of "What have I done" something about "Loved" and "how could I" and the last comprehensible one being, "I should die".

"What should we do?" Makoto asked Chihiro quietly.

"Give her a moment to think about what happened," Chihiro answered in the same tone, "it's the only way she'll fully understand."

Sayaka was silent for several seconds before she let out a near-deafening scream and broke into tears.

"And...she's got it." the programmer stated.

"Leon!" Sayaka cried emotionally.

Leon flinched as the idol's arms wrapped tightly around his waist and dug her face into his abdomen, while she whimpered excessive apologies and what sounded like slurred professions of fondness.

Makoto sighed deeply and leaned against his wall, then he took up his cellphone and texted Kyoko:

"Status report, first crisis averted."

Kyoko replied:

"How much trouble?"

Unwilling to tell her about the run-in with Sayaka, he answered:

"Nothing major."

She replied:

"Uh huh..."

* * *

Oh wow, I was so tempted to end that earlier than I had expected, but, I managed to get in what I wanted.

Now here's hoping it stays this easy, also, if anyone is confused, don't worry, most questions with be answered in future chapters.


	5. Chapter 5

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 5.

Moving on, nice and easy, I hope.

* * *

Following the ordeal with Sayaka, with the first murder (hopefully) successfully prevented, it was time to get everything in perspective.

"Okay, just to be clear, let's put it all together," Leon voiced, "this all happened before?"

"Yes." Makoto said.

"We've actually known each other for a while now, but, our memories were stolen from us at the start of this 'game'?" Leon continued curiously.

"Yeeup." Makoto said.

"And, provided I saw that right," Leon addressed Chihiro, mildly off topic, "you're really a dude?"

"That is correct." Chihiro stated matter-of-factly.

Then Sayaka spoke aloud for the first time since she got her memories back.

"Also...most of us didn't make it out last time?" she asked hesitantly.

Makoto nodded.

"Only six of us." Makoto sighed sadly.

"And..._we _were the first to die?" Sayaka asked further, referring to herself and Leon.

"Y-Yeah," Makoto answered, "but, it's okay, because, it didn't happen this time."

"But, it _did _happen," Sayaka responded tensely, "in another reality, in another time, it _did happen_!"

"She's right," Leon said uneasily, "this already happened once and, before...I..."

He looked at the regretful Sayaka then turned away, discreetly digging at the corner of his eyes to hamper the advent of tears. Even so, Sayaka could easily see through his stance, which only made her feel worse.

"I know it's a lot to process," Makoto said, trying to keep everything going, "but, we need to keep it together, there's still a lot that needs to be done and a lot that needs to be changed. You're probably tired of hearing me say this, but, we need to stick together, it's the only chance we have against Monokuma and Junko."

"He's right," Chihiro said, "the only way to get everyone out of here is to stay together, so, take all of your negative feelings and gear them toward Monokuma and Junko. Because, when it comes down to it, they're the cause of all the pain and suffering we had to deal with here."

The room was quiet for almost a minute.

"Junkooooooo..." Sayaka wheezed quietly, her eyes wide open and twitching.

Leon remained complete silent and straight-faced, what he was thinking or feeling was anybody's guess.

* * *

With the first ordeal settled, Leon and Sayaka both retired to their respective rooms. Though, whether they would sleep or not was uncertain.

With them taken care of, Chihiro turned their attention to a more pressing issue, as they stood in the hallway.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked Makoto mindfully, "There were a lot of slash marks in that room and you're still bleeding."

Makoto looked down at his sore hands and saw that the one was still bleeding.

"Oh, yeah," he replied, "I guess I am, but, I can't really do anything about it, cause the water is turned off at night."

"Right, but, I think the kitchen is still accessible," Chihiro said, "we'll also need to return that knife to its rightful spot, as well."

They then cautiously made their way to the kitchen.

"We should be careful," Makoto said, "it may not be against the rules, but, it probably won't look good if we're caught out here at night."

"Especially if one of us is carrying a knife and the other is injured." Chihiro added.

"Only _mildly _injured," Makoto insisted, "come on, now."

"Still, we'll be quick about this." the programmer affirmed.

As soon as they were in the kitchen Chihiro put the knife back where it belonged and Makoto held his bleeding hand over the sink to let the excess blood drop from it. Only now did he realize how much it really hurt. Then, Chihiro grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and some nearby paper towels.

"This may not be the most thorough of first-aid procedures," Chihiro said as he began to gingerly pour water onto his friend's lacerated palm, "but, it'll have to do for now."

Makoto tensed as the cold water hit his open wound, he had not expected it to sting so much.

"Ah, Christ," he winced, "I didn't realize it was so deep."

"Hold on," Chihiro said, grabbing the rag, "this may hurt a bit."

The programmer went about lightly dabbing the Luckster's wound with a paper towel, trying to get it as clean as he possibly could. Though Chihiro was gentle, the pain was still hard to ignore and Makoto could not help but flinch.

"I'm sorry." Chihiro said meekly, feeling bad for making his friend hurt.

"It's okay," Makoto sighed, trying to mask the discomfort in his voice, "I appreciate your help, I know it could have been far worse."

When he was done swabbing the wound, Chihiro laid the paper towel across Makoto's palm, then made him close his hand around it to help stop the bleeding.

"Now we just have to wrap it." the programmer affirmed.

"With what?" the Luckster wondered.

Without missing a beat, Chihiro pulled the tie out from the top of his overcoat and securely wrapped it around his friend's injured hand to tie the paper towel in place.

"There, that should make due until morning," Chihiro said, "just, don't move it around to much or it could start bleeding again."

"Thanks, Chihiro," Makoto said gratefully, "now, we should get back to our rooms before we're caught."

Chihiro nodded, then, they left the kitchen and fled back to their own rooms.

Though, once he was back in his room, Makoto was met with a realization; while his wound was concealable, the slash marks that painted his room were not. How would he go about explaining those?

* * *

When seven o'clock rolled around and Monokuma gave the daily wake up call, Makoto awoke, just as the others did. He pushed himself up in bed, but, cringed as a sharp pain gripped his hand, reminding him of what had happened during nighttime. As he got out of bed, he looked down at his wrapped hand and removed the substitute bandage to inspect it.

The wound was not pleasant to look at, but, it appeared to have scabbed over, he gingerly tapped it and flinched, it still really hurt, but, it had stopped bleeding, which was the important thing. As he stood up, he looked around his room and was surprised to see that the slash marks from last night's altercation were now somehow gone. How or why, he was unsure, he assumed Monokuma had to have done it, regardless, he did not care, he was just glad that now he would not have to try and hide or explain the mess to anyone who saw it, especially Kyoko.

Makoto then tore up the bloody paper towel that had been tied around his hand to protect his gash and flushed it in his bathroom, then put the tie Chihiro had used in his pocket, planning to return it as soon as he saw him.

With that, he left his room, only to see Kyoko appear in the hall at the exact same time; as soon as she saw him, the sleuth headed straight for the Luckster.

"Hey," Kyoko said, "sorry I never got back to you last night, I just...fell asleep."

"That's understandable." Makoto replied.

"So, really, how _did_ it go?" the sleuth asked, "Is everyone okay...physically?"

Makoto hesitated to answer, he glanced down at his marred hand, which he casually moved behind his back.

"Well, yeah," he said coolly, "everyone came out of it in one piece."

Technically it was not a lie, but, Makoto knew it was not the whole truth.

"_I know I should probably tell her," he _thought, "_but, I'm worried, how would I explain this? Of course I could always tell her it was one of my simple, clumsy missteps, but, knowing her, she'd see right through the lie and question me further. Then, suppose I do tell her the truth, what would happen then? She's already overprotective enough as it is, if she knew about this, she's probably never let my out of her sight. Really, it's just a scratch, there's no harm in keeping a little scratch to myself...is there? Nah..." _

"However," Makoto said aloud, "you should probably know, Chihiro actually does know what's going on, so...looks like we got more help."

"I guess it's no surprise," Kyoko replied, "and with his help, we may have a better chance here."

Makoto nodded in response.

Just then, Kyoko reached up and carefully picked something out of his hair.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Makoto asked awkwardly, pressing his scathed palm against his back, fighting the urge to flinch at the pain.

His lavender-haired girlfriend inspected just what she had pulled from his hair pinched between her thumb and index finger.

"Huh...there was a...paint chip...in your hair." she said curiously.

Makoto tensed, no doubt it had ended up there during Sayaka's attack as she stabbed and slashed his walls, while he dodged every strike.

"Oh, that's odd," he said nonchalantly, "don't know where that would have come from."

Surprisingly, Kyoko did not ask any further questions and simply crushed the paint sliver between her fingers.

They then decided to head to the cafeteria with the others and there, they found the rest of their fellow former survivors.

"Hey guys," Makoto said, "hope you slept well."

"C-Can't complain I g-guess." Toko stated.

"About as well as you can expect in this situation," Yasuhiro sighed, "I was awake for the longest time, listening to see if something would happen. Of course, it wasn't till about 2:45 a.m. that I remembered that our rooms were soundproof."

Byakuya glanced around the room.

"We seem to be missing some people." he said.

Makoto looked around for himself and found that the scion was right, some of their friends had yet to arrive. Not so surprisingly, the disguised Mukuro was not there, though, more surprisingly Chihiro was not there, and more significantly neither Sayaka nor Leon had showed up either. Though it was not surprising, they could not help but feel slightly concerned.

"Where could they be?" a concerned Aoi voiced, "You don't think something bad happened to them, do you?"

"I'm sure they're fine," Kyoko said, "we can't expect everyone to be okay after only the first night."

"She's right," Makoto affirmed, "though, just to be sure, I'll go see if I can find them."

He walked back out of the dining hall and went to find their missing friends, naturally, he did not expect to find Mukuro, at least, not right away. Although, the other three should not have been too hard to track down.

It was then that he remembered, Chihiro had a cellphone with him, so, he pulled out his own phone and went about texting Chihiro:

Makoto said, "Where r u?"

He waited and after three needlessly nervewracking minutes, the programmer texted him back:

"1st floor bathroom."

Makoto sighed relief, knowing that his friend was okay, then replied:

"R u okay?"

Chihiro said, "I'm fine, I'm just wrking on sumthing with Alter Ego, come see."

With that, Makoto made his way to first floor bathrooms, but, stopped right in front of them; while Chihiro had told him his location, he failed to specify which bathroom he was in. Granted, he and a select number of others knew that he was a boy, but, at this point, there were still some who did not know it.

Bracing himself for any reaction, he messaged Chihiro:

"Hey...which bathroom r u in?"

He waited and got a surprisingly quick response:

"Boys'."

Makoto sighed and put his phone away, then walked into the boys bathroom, where he found Chihiro.

"Hey Makoto," Chihiro said, "I'm glad you showed up, take a look at what we did."

He held up his phone brought up something that looked like a map.

"What is it?" Makoto asked.

"I finally hacked into Junko's network, we now have the access to every security camera in the building, so now, we can see everything Junko sees and then some," Chihiro said, "Alter Ego and I were up most of the night working on it, now we'll know where everyone is and what's going on at all times."

"That's impressive, Chihiro," Makoto replied, "but, how did you manage that?"

"Easily, since Alter Ego can be transferred into other devices wirelessly," the programmer affirmed, "all I had to do is send him into the monitor in my room and that was that."

Chihiro brought up the screen that displayed a digital archive of the security cameras that could be viewed.

"Here," he offered, "I'll set it up on your phone so you can use it when you need to."

The Luckster handed his phone over to the programmer, who put their phones together and fiddled with the buttons for about twenty seconds.

"Done," the programmer informed, "now all you have to do is tell Alter Ego which camera you wanna view or tell him who or what you're looking for and he'll scan the security system until he finds the right camera."

Makoto held out his hand as Chihiro returned his phone to him, but, cringed when the phone touched his hand, as it was hit with a sudden, sharp pain. He then realized that the phone was in his injured hand.

"Na-ahh!" he gasped.

"What happened?" the programmer responded frantically, "Is it your hand?"

"It's fine," the Makoto groaned, "I just, wasn't paying attention, I actually forgot about that."

He then remembered something else.

"Oh yeah," the Luckster said, "before I forget, here's this."

He pulled the tie to Chihiro's shirt out of his pocket and handed over to him.

"Oh, you didn't have to return that." Chihiro said.

"It's fine, I didn't have any other use for it," Makoto replied, "besides, I'd rather not hang onto to any evidence that I was injured."

"Right," Chihiro voiced, "by the way, how _is_ your hand?"

Makoto looked down at the jagged scab.

"Fine," he said, "still a little sore, but, I'm sure that's to be expected with such a wound."

The programmer looked dubiously.

"Maybe," he said, "just, let me know if it gets worse."

Makoto nodded.

"I'm sure Mukuro probably isn't around," he voiced, "but, have you seen Sayaka or Leon?"

"I don't think so," Chihiro said, "but, that's okay, because now we have an opportunity to break in the new security device."

"...And you're sure Monokuma and Junko won't find out about this?" Makoto wondered.

"Well, Alter Ego has been good to keep our cover so far," Chihiro said, "the way I see it, the Student IDs are monitored by Monokuma and Junko, this that I created can't be detected by them, so we should be good...hopefully."

"Not that I doubt your expertise," Makoto voiced, "but, how can we be sure?"

Chihiro looked on unsurely.

"...We can't," Chihiro said meekly, "we've been good so far, but, you never know what Junko or Monokuma will do, but, we can't let them threaten us, we have to get out of here, no matter what."

He was trying to be confident, Makoto could tell, but, at the same time, he displayed an obvious tension, there was definitely a great deal of pressure on the programmer's end. In Makoto's mind, at the rate they were progressing, it almost seemed like Chihiro was doing most of the work, more than he needed to.

"You're contributing a lot, Chihiro," Makoto expressed, "and we definitely can't do this without you, hell, you even made this chance possible. But, please, don't overwork yourself, we're all involved in this and we're winning our way out of here together."

Chihiro smiled gratefully, then told Alter Ego to search the security cameras for Sayaka.

"Ah," he noted, "looks like Sayaka's outside the gymnasium."

Makoto looked at his phone and saw the image on the screen, showing Sayaka standing next to the glass cases outside the gym.

"All right," he said, "thanks Chihiro."

"You're welcome," the programmer responded, "just use the security screener whenever you wanna see what's happening somewhere or if you're looking for someone."

The Luckster thanked him again, then headed toward the gym and there he found Sayaka staring into the glass case in front of the gym doors. It was the same case that held the decorative sword that had been taken to Makoto's room the first time around.

"Um...hey," he said, "didn't know you were up."

She did not respond.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" he voiced, "It's nice if you did, but, I'd understand if you didn't."

Again, no answer.

"Well...uh, I'm glad you're okay," he sighed, "you and some others didn't show up at the dining hall, so, I just wanted to check on you and make sure everyone was well. Again, we're in the dining hall if you decide to join us."

He started to walk away, until Sayaka finally spoke.

"What are you doing, Makoto?" she asked quietly.

"What now?" Makoto replied curiously.

"Why...why are you talking to me?" she questioned solemnly, "How can you talk to me after what I've done?"

It seemed that she was still thinking about what she had done, though it did not surprise Makoto.

"Sayaka..." he sighed.

"I mean, I understand what you're trying to do," Sayaka voiced dismally, "but, why would you want to save _me_? After what I did, do you really think I deserve to get out of here alive?"

"Nobody deserved what happened to them last time," Makoto attested, "yeah, some of you may have done some unspeakable things, even unforgivable things, but, between Monokuma's goading, Junko's dirty tricks, and just the entire situation in general, I really don't think there's any grounds to hold any of it against any of you."

Sayaka looked on in awe.

"But, not only did I try to frame you for murder last time while trying kill...*gulp*...but, this time, I tried to kill_ you_ in cold blood," she questioned, "how could you possibly forgive that!?"

She hung her head and stared at the floor, her lips quivering as the threat of tears crept up on her. Makoto hated seeing her, any of his friends look so unhappy, sure, she had every reason to feel guilty, but, Makoto felt that if she could see it from his side, maybe she would have understood.

Makoto then felt that if he could make her feel better at all, even a little bit, maybe it would help restore some sanity to her.

"You know," he voiced, "I can't help but feel some deja vu from this."

Sayaka looked on strangely.

"Well, I can imagine," she said, "if you've already been through here before."

"Not with the Killing Game," Makoto said, "but, back in middle school, that day I helped that crane."

Sayaka thought about it.

"Oh, right," she replied, "I remember that, but, how does _this_ remind you of _that_?"

The more Makoto thought about it, the more it made sense.

"Because, when I look at you all of you that fell here last time, wanting to get out of here, fearing what's going to happen," he expressed, "I can't help but think of that crane."

Sayaka listened curiously as he explained, "Imagine how scared it was, how lost if felt, it probably thought it would never get home, that it would die on the school grounds."

Sayaka nodded slowly.

"Kinda like how I feel now," she said, "like how _we all_ feel."

"Exactly," Makoto affirmed, "and just as I helped that crane get home, I'm gonna help all of you get out of here, no matter what. So, don't worry about what's _already_ happened, focus on what's _going to_ happen, we're all getting out of here together this time, I promise."

Sayaka looked on dumbfounded and gave a quick thankful smile.

"Well, whatever you plan on doing next, stay out of trouble," Makoto said, "now, I'm gonna go look for Leon."

The idol suddenly looked unhappy.

"He's probably still in his room," she sighed, "he hasn't been out all morning."

After once again advising her to be careful, the Luckster headed for the dorms; along the way, Makoto felt his hurt palm throb painfully. He lifted it up to look at, wincing as he tentatively poked the unkempt, bright red scab, which appeared to be in the process of cracking.

"Man, when is this gonna stop hurting?" he mumbled.

As he entered the hallway, he slowed down and looked around, keeping an eye out for Monokuma as he approached Leon's room.

Makoto was about to knock on the door, almost forgetting once again that the rooms were soundproof. He immediately went to the doorbell, rang it repeatedly, then waited. He waited for over a minute, but, got no answer, which made him nervous.

Remembering the device Chihiro had created, Makoto quickly took out his phone, using his uninjured hand, and summoned Alter Ego.

"You rang, Mr. Naegi?" Alter Ego responded.

"I need to check the security screener," Makoto requested, "can you show me Leon's room?"

"Yes sir," the A.I. replied, "hold on a second."

The screen on his phone then changed, displaying a faded, greenish static as a red sonar-like needle spun clockwise on top of it.

"Got it." Alter Ego said.

The Luckster braced himself as the desired image appeared on his phone, he even closed his eyes for a moment before he finally looked closely at it. He could see the entirety of Leon's room and inside, said baseball player was indeed there, lying on his bed. Not only could Makoto see that Leon was in fact alive, but, he could also see that he was awake.

"Oh, good," Makoto sighed with relief, "got worried for nothing."

However, the lucky one was still perplexed, if the athletic one was awake, why was he not answering his door?

"Now I just wish I could get his attention." he stated.

"Here," Alter Ego said, "let me get the door for you."

Before Makoto could question it, he heard the distinct sound of a door lock unlocking.

"I was equipped with an automated skeleton key, so I could bypass any locks setup by Monokuma and Junko," Alter Ego explained, "Master was smart to think ahead."

Of course, the Luckster was fascinated by Alter Ego's advances, though, he could not help but ponder the ethicality of having access to a device that allowed him to enter any room he wanted without the occupant's permission. Regardless, he accepted his new advantage, seeing as Chihiro had been nice enough to make it for him.

Makoto reached out and grabbed the doorknob, then he slowly turned it and pushed the door open. Inside, he found Leon picking at the floor as he lay on his mattress, somehow not reacting to someone entering his originally locked room. He did not say or do anything, he simply lad there, scratching the carpet with an impassive look on his face.

"Leon?" Makoto spoke carefully.

Surprisingly, the baseball player spared him a glance, the averted his gaze right back to the ground.

"Hey, Makoto." he said softly.

He sounded so quiet and tired, it was obvious that he did not get enough sleep the previous night.

"Hey, did you just wake up?" the Luckster wondered.

"I woke up hours ago," Leon sighed, "though, honestly, I barely got an hour of sleep last night."

The tall redhead then lifted his hand from the carpet and tucked it under his pillow with the other one.

"Oh, okay," Makoto replied, "well, sorry I got in without asking, but, we got kinda worried because some people didn't show up this morning, so, I was just making sure everyone was okay; _are_ you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," the baseball player attested, "I was just...too lazy to get up."

Given what had happened the previous night, Makoto wondered if there was another reason he did not want to leave his room.

"Well, everyone's kinda doing their own thing right now," Makoto offered, "maybe you wanna come to the dining hall with me...or something."

Leon looked at the door, then back at the carpet.

"I...I don't know," he said hesitantly, "I'm still kinda tired."

The Luckster had a feeling that there was an alternate reason behind the baseball player's refusal to leave his room. He presumed it was the exact same reason why Sayaka could not bring herself to visit Leon's room earlier, he was "hesitating".

"Okay then," Makoto sighed, "if you insist, maybe you can come out la-" He stopped midsentence as a sudden twinge rocked his marred palm. "Waaugh!" Makoto winced aloud, clutching his sore hand.

To his surprise, Leon suddenly sat upright on his mattress.

"Naah! What happened!?" the athletic one uttered anxiously.

Makoto was stunned as he did not expect his involuntary outcry to spark such a reaction from the redhead.

"Ugh, it's nothing," he said, trying remain cool, "just...my hand."

"Is that the one that got sliced?" Leon wondered as he stood up.

Makoto nodded, holding his hand close.

"Can I see?" the taller teen asked.

"Well, um..." Makoto replied reluctantly, "please...don't touch it."

He turned his hand over to display his palm, then pulled it back, as spreading his hand irritated his wound.

"Oh, gross," Leon groaned, "how badly does it hurt?"

"It's not so bad," Makoto said, "it was deeper than I thought it was, so, I wouldn't expect it to perfectly heal in just one night. At least the bleeding stopped."

The baseball player cast a second unsure glance down at his friend's hand again.

"Look, I haven't exactly told any of the other former survivors about it," Makoto affirmed, "I've only shown Chihiro and now you, so, I would prefer it if you didn't tell anyone, especially not Kyoko."

"Why not-" Leon responded, "oh, right."

"Also, to avoid the risk of me going back unaccomplished," the lucky one voiced, "would you _please_ come back to dining hall with me? After being in here all morning, I'll bet anything that you're hungry."

The taller one looked on dismally.

"Maybe kinda." he mumbled.

With that, the two of them headed to the dining hall, which by that point, was half empty.

* * *

Around noon, Monokuma called everyone to the gym for an important announcement.

"Do you think he's gonna hand out the next motives now?" Aoi wondered

"If he does," Byakuya said, "we'll have to act as soon as we get it."

"Define "as soon as we get it", would you?" Kyoko replied sourly.

"What I mean is, let's not wait until the very last-minute to spring into action like we did last time."

Kyoko rolled her eyes in response.

"Look," Makoto voiced, "for all we know, this might not be about the motives yet, it could be something else."

Kyoko then raised her hand to silence him as the former victims who had yet to get their memories back passed them.

"We'll discus it more later." she said quietly.

As soon as everyone was in the gym, Monokuma appeared onstage before them.

"Hey there, kiddy kiddies," the robotic bear said merrily, "boy do I have good news for you."

"You're letting us go?" Hifumi asked hopefully.

"Cute," Monokuma replied dryly, "absolutely not."

Hifumi backed away in disappointment.

"I've been thinking, things have been running rather slow since we first started here," the two-toned bear toy voiced, "and I think that's partly my fault, I mean, I only gave you so much to work with in the beginning and I'm starting to think I need to expand your pasture, give you a greater variety of assets to get things moving along."

"Get to the fucking point!" Mondo yelled.

"I'm getting there," Monokuma responded, "don't interrupt me; look, I'm opening up the second floor for you all, sound good?"

"The s-second floor?" Toko voiced curiously.

"Oh right," Makoto replied, "I forgot about that."

"Why open the second floor now?" Kyoko questioned, "Is that where we'll find our next motive?"

Makoto was about to ask her what she was doing, but, once again, she raised her hand to silence him.

"You'll get your motives when I'm good and ready!" Monokuma snapped, holding up his clawed paw, "Just go look around already, I'll call you all back as soon as I got what I need."

The announcement threw the former survivors off completely, as they had not expected the second floor to become accessible so early.

"What's going on?" Makoto wondered quietly, "Why is this happening _now_?"

"Maybe the change of events has thrown Junko off," Kyoko said in response, "even if she doesn't remember anything from the last time, no doubt she probably expected a killing to happen by now, or at the very least expected us to start turning on one another."

"So...she's probably getting anxious," Makoto mused, "is that good or bad?"

"Well, if her being anxious is the case, then it means our actions so far have made an impact," Byakuya voiced, "however, it also means she and Monokuma may resort to more extreme measures to get things moving."

Makoto thought quietly to himself, wondering how things could get more extreme than they did last time.

"I just had a thought," Aoi offered, "do you think Chihiro's new unlocking thing could allow us to get the areas that are still closed off? I would feel better knowing we had access the infirmary and the lab, you know, just in case."

They all thought about it.

"Possibly," Kyoko voiced, "however, since we haven't restored everyone's memories yet, we probably shouldn't try it right away. Besides, we have no reason to go to the third floor, at least, not yet."

Makoto gulped and discretely slid his hands into his pockets, minding his lacerated one as he did.

"That's right," he said coolly, "no reason whatsoever."

* * *

Oh dear, I probably should not have made this chapter so long, but, somehow, it just kept going.

I know this chapter probably raised a lot of questions, but, all I can say is, bear with me. It will (hopefully) all make sense by the end of the story. As I said when I first started this story, the sole purpose of it is to get all the characters back alive. So, rationality is bound to slip, characterization Is bound to suffer, and I wouldn't be surprised if plot holes started showing up. Regardless, I can't guarantee gold or perfect, all I can guarantee is a happy ending.


	6. Chapter 6

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 6.

Moving on, hopefully I can maybe speed this up.

* * *

As the Ultimates went about their business for the day, waiting for what the next motive pushed on them would be, Makoto had something else on his mind.

"_Whose memories should we restore next_?" he thought to himself, "_I know we need to get to Mukuro as fast as we can, but, how the hell would we get her alone? Also, there's no telling how she'll react when she finally remembers everything._"

So far, everyone seemed to be getting along just fine, aside from the occasional distrustful looks cast back and forth, but, that was about it. Chihiro seemed to be doing a good job keeping people in line, speaking up (as best he could) when it appeared that the atmosphere was turning tense.

Leon and Sayaka seemed to be keeping low profiles, both of them mostly staying silent and out of sight, to the point where their presence was nearly forgotten. If he was lucky enough, Makoto would run into one of them, usually shortly after one of them was caught in the area. Neither would admit it, but, the Luckster could not help but feel as if they were avoiding each other.

As Makoto contemplated everything, sitting at one of the tables in the dining hall, Kyoko joined him.

"Any trouble?" she wondered.

"Not yet," the Luckster replied, "everyone seems to be rather...chill, so far. To be honest, I'm not even sure what to be looking out for, what to expect." He clenched his hands nervously, then flinched, forgetting about his tender, maimed palm.

"To be honest," Kyoko said, "I'm more concerned with what Monokuma or...you know who...is going to do, seeing as nobody has died yet."

It was an unsettling thought.

"You don't think they'd..." Makoto proposed uneasily, "start...taking matters into their own hands...do you?"

"I don't know," the sleuth replied, "nothing would surprise me, that's why I'm worried about it."

Just then something bounced off of Makoto's forehead and landed on in front of him on the table. It was a wad of paper.

He looked at Kyoko who glanced down at the paper as if to say, "Well, go on, look at it."

Makoto hesitantly unfurled the wad of paper and saw words reading:

"**Come to the changing area in about one hour, I'm gonna need your help with something**.

**You don't have to come alone this time.**

-**Chihiro**"

"Something happen?" Kyoko asked.

"I don't know," Makoto replied, "I guess we'll see in an hour."

"Should we go ourselves," Kyoko wondered, "or should we bring the other four with us?"

"I don't think all six of us will have to go," the lucky one said, "we'll tell them about it and then see who, if any, want to come with us."

* * *

"Do you really think the matter will require _all_ _of us_ to be there?" Aoi wondered.

"We don't know," Kyoko said, "that's why we brought it up with you guys."

"I-I don't know if it's a g-good idea for all of us to g-go," Toko voiced, "won't it look s-suspicious for all of us to c-convene in one specific location and s-start talking amongst ourselves? Even if we d-do have a technological advantage, w-what'll stop Monokuma from sh-showing up during the m-meeting?"

"She's not wrong," Byakuya said, "even if we have the power to manipulate _her _visual and audio equipment, we still have nothing to ward off Monokuma."

"Like we said," Makoto affirmed, "we don't _all _have to go, none of you have to come with me if you don't want to, we just wanted to keep you up to speed on everything that's happening."

Everyone was quiet while they took a moment to think.

"I'll go," Aoi said, "I need to ask Chihiro some questions anyway."

"N-Not that you probably w-want me to go," Toko said reluctantly, "but, I-I'll go too, for c-curiosity's sake."

Byakuya and Yasuhiro chose not to tag along, but, instead promised to keep an eye on the others while they went to see Chihiro.

* * *

When the time came, the four survivors made their way toward the pool area to meet Chihiro by the changing rooms.

When they got to the door, Makoto took a quick look around before knocking on the door leading into the changing rooms.

After a moment of waiting, Chihiro opened the door.

"Hey, Makoto," the programmer voiced, "four of you this time?"

Makoto nodded in response.

"Is something wrong?" Kyoko asked.

"No, no," Chihiro answered, "quite the opposite actually, but, there's a lot to discuss right now and I figured that I'd need some backup."

The four of them walked through the door with Chihiro and in front of the changing rooms they found Mondo, Kiyotaka, Celeste, and Hifumi standing. They all appeared to be in a different state of mind, Celeste looked to be deep in thought, Hifumi looked scared and depressed, Kiyotaka looked horrified, and Mondo looked unreadable, his head hung in silence.

"What's going on?" Makoto voiced, "Did you..."

"Yeah," Chihiro replied, "they all know now, I wanted to renew someone else's memories, but, I panicked because I couldn't tell who needed it more, so, I just...rounded up these guys, brought them here, and got the deed done. I didn't know what else to do."

"How did they...you know...take it?" Aoi wondered.

"I think they're still trying to process it," Chihiro said, "I was hoping maybe you could help me explain the situation and where we might go from here."

They thought about it, though Makoto was nor sure what to say to the four that they had not said to Leon and Sayaka.

"Um, okay," Makoto replied, "but, what have you told them so far?"

"That this all happened before and that it was a _long_ story," the programmer answered, "after that I told them to wait while I gave you that message...I was too nervous to explain it to all of them by myself, you know, with the confused and frightened stares and all."

Makoto understood and agreed to help explain everything to their newly informed friends, with the help of Kyoko, Aoi, and Toko as well.

"So...you're saying..." Celeste voiced, "you..._we_...all have come back in time?"

"This really did happen before?" Kiyotaka uttered, "That's...how is that possible!?"

"You know, I made it happen," Chihiro said, his voice lowering as he went on, "and yet, I'm still not sure how to really explain it, all I can say for sure is that somehow combining with Alter Ego and the computer network while we were still on the other side made it possible and it's still possible, if need be, we can rewind again, you know, if something goes wrong."

Silence filled the room, no one knew what to say or how to feel.

"So, if what you say is true," Mondo voiced, "then, we went through hell, literally ended up in hell, and now have been saved from hell?"

"Well," Kyoko said, "technically, we all went through hell, ten of you ended up in limbo, and we are now still in the process of trying to keep you all from ending up there again."

"Which we are going to do," Aoi attested, "we came back to save you guys, because...you shouldn't have ended up like you did last time, none of that should have happened. But, this time it won't, you'll all get out and come home with us!"

"Ssssh!" Toko hissed, "N-Not so loud, w-we can't let Monokuma h-hear us!"

"Aoi's right though," Makoto said softly, "we came back, we still don't get how it was possible, but, we did, we came back to save you all and we're _going _to do it!"

More silence.

"Uh..." Mondo voiced solemnly, "I'm sure everyone who knows about it appreciates what you guys are trying to do and I'm not about to try to speak for everyone on this, but...are you sure that's a good idea? I mean...is it really worth it?"

"Stop!" Makoto uttered quickly, "Look, I think I know where you're going with this and I have to say, please...just...don't!"

Mondo was taken aback by the Luckster's outburst.

"I know a lot of you feel bad about what you did," Makoto expressed, "I've already had this conversation with someone earlier, about whether you guys deserve to be saved or not and honestly, I wholly believe that each of you deserve to get out of here!" He lowered his voice, in fear of alerting Monokuma, but did not lose his tone, "Look, it doesn't matter what you guys think or how you feel right now, regardless of how anyone feels, we're getting you all out of here! We cannot and will not let Junko win!"

Suddenly, a surge of pain gripped his palm, making him wince quietly, though he was good to keep anyone from noticing.

Sensing an issue of some kind, Chihiro took over for his friend.

"He's right," the programmer affirmed meekly, "no matter what happens, this time we're all going to get out together, as we were meant to. That's how it's going to be, please don't bother trying to argue with us, it won't change our minds."

After another moment of nobody saying anything, Celeste decided to speak.

"Well," she said, pulling her old dignified smile for the first time since she had gotten her memories back, "I don't know about you all, but, I feel if they're really going through all this trouble to get us out, then I say we don't let their efforts be in vain."

"Can we really do it though?" Hifumi wondered, "Can we really beat Junko and Monokuma? Can we really get out?"

"Well, we're just gonna have to see for ourselves now, aren't we?" Celeste responded, "After all, no matter what we say or do, I can say with all certainty that _nobody _here wants to stay here for all eternity, dead or alive!"

Her words seemed to register with the others.

"She's right...fuck!" Mondo sighed.

Nobody liked the idea of Celeste being a voice of reason **(Seriously, would anyone?)**.

"As much as what happened last time bothers any of us, nobody wants to be stuck in this hell hole forever," the biker continued, "if we did stay forever, then we'd never be able to redeem ourselves and...fuck...do some of us need it."

Celeste responded with her classic, china doll-like smile, as if to say, "But, of course."

"Can I ask some things now?" Aoi asked.

All eyes on her.

"Chihiro," the swimmer asked, "seeing as we've gotten this far already, can you _please _restore Sakura's memories now?"

"I don't know about right at this moment." Chihiro said meekly.

"Why not?" Aoi sighed impatiently, "How much longer do we have to drag this ou-"

Before she could finish speaking, just as they had dreaded, Monokume popped up.

"AAAAH!" Aoi screamed as the bear startled her.

"Well, hello there students," Monokuma voiced, "what's a lot like this doing convening in a place like this? Outside the changing room no less, I certainly hope nobody was planning on doing something..._naughty_. After all, bad things happen to naughty kids who act on their sensual desires outside of their rooms."

"We weren't doing anything wrong," Makoto said, "we were just hanging out, talking."

"Oooooh," the black and white bear responded with intrigue, "and what were you talking about? If there's one thing Monokuma can never turn down, it's a chance to listen in on some juicy gossip!"

"We were talking about how fucking irritating _you_ are!" Mondo uttered furiously, "Always popping up when you aren't wanted! Which is _never_!"

Monokuma hung his head.

"My, my," Monokuma voiced, "such brazen disrespect, ah well, I guess it can't be helped, after all, you guys must be feeling mighty stir crazy, being stuck in here for so long, it kinda drives you mad doesn't? Kinda makes you wanna _stab _someone or bash someone on the head or maybe even kill yourselves, tsk, such a despairing situation isn't it? One way out with multiple possible ways to get there, the only thing standing between you and the outside being that self restraint."

Nobody liked what he was saying, obviously, but, at the same time, nobody knew how to respond, one damning response from anyone could destroy all the progress they had made so far.

"You've all been getting along so far, despite all the confusion and uncertainty," Monokuma continued in his condescending tone, "but, I can only wonder, how much longer will it last? How much longer _can_ it last? The way I see it, it's only a matter of time before someone finally cracks...someone's skull wiiiiiiide open."

Makoto looked around at everyone, as if to say, "Don't say anything!"

They could not afford to make any mistakes now, they were so close, in Makoto's mind, the door to the outside was right in front of them and with every passing hour they got closer to it, with everyone in tow. It was right there and he was not about to go back by this point, not when they were so close.

"There's no need for you to worry about us." Celeste finally said.

"_Oh God, Celeste no, shut up, shut up, Godammit, Celeste, shut the hell up!_" Makoto thought frantically, knowing how unpredictable the gambler was every time she opened her mouth.

"If you couldn't tell already," the high roller affirmed, "we are...adapting...acclimating to our new surrounding, that is why we seem to be getting along so well. We're treating this as if we were living in a normal school setting. That's all."

"So you're saying that you've all come to accept the idea that you may spend the rest of your lives here?" the bear questioned.

Celeste separated her hands and shrugged, her imposing smile never leaving her white face.

"Riiiiiiight," Monokuma replied, "somehow, I find that hard to believe, but, whatever, do what you want, just mind the rules and your heads."

With that the robotic bear disappeared once again.

"Oh, thank God he's gone," Chihiro sighed, " for a second there, I thought we were done for."

"Wow, Celeste," Makoto said, "I didn't expect you talk him down like that, I half expected you to say something entirely different."

"What," the gambler replied curiously, "did you expect me expose our secrets to him."

Makoto was not sure what to say back.

"T-To be fair, it's kind of hard to e-expect anything good to come out of the m-mouth of the Queen of L-Liars." Toko said.

Celeste did not respond she merely put her hands together and averted her gaze.

"Well, it's starting to get kinda late, what do you guys think," Chihiro voiced, "break for now?"

Everyone seemed to agree, seeing as Monokuma had already shown up once, if they stayed any longer, there was a chance he could show up again and next time, he probably would not be sent away so easily.

"But, Chihiro," Aoi groaned, "what about..."

"I'm sorry, but, I don't think I'll be able to do it today," the programmer said apologetically, "but, maybe tomorrow, when we have more time and can get more organized, only two still need their memories back, we're nearly there. We just need to stand _one _more night."

Aoi looked unsatisfied.

"Okay," she sighed, "I'll trust you, tomorrow, but, not another day more, there's no telling what Monokuma has waiting for us tomorrow."

* * *

Oh, thank God, another chapter done; sorry if this feels rushed or anything, I just need to speed this up a little. But, obviously, despite what's said in this chapter, it is not going to go down that easy and there's still a lot lined up for the climax, which I can't wait to get to.

Also, **if you could not tell from this chapter, I _reeeaaaallllly _don't care much for Celeste**, I mean, maybe I don't hate her as much as I hate Hiyoko Saionji, but, I won't go into full detail on all of that. Anyway, her speaking here was a reference to how in the game she tended to speak mostly at times when she really did not need to and how when she did speak, she usually said something that did not need to be said. That and she was kind of greedy bitch! **Sorry if any Celeste fans are reading this**.


	7. Chapter 7

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 7.

All right, finally getting to a part I was anticipating.

**Warning..._terrible_ dialogue and sequel hints ahead (Hell yeah I have sequels for this story in mind).**

Here goes.

* * *

Everyone returned to their rooms for the evening, mentally prepping themselves for whatever awaited them in the morning.

After seeing everybody back to their rooms, Makoto and Kyoko met up in the hallway.

"Well, nine more hours." Kyoko said hopefully.

"Nine more hours." Makoto sighed breathlessly, feeling surprisingly tired.

Kyoko, struck with curiosity, looked closely at the Luckster, with the same look, Makoto identified, that she got when she investigated a crime scene. Makoto got nervous, wondering what he could have done to receive such a look.

"Um...something wrong?" the lucky one asked timidly.

"You tell me," the sleuth replied unexpectedly, "you've incurred a mysterious pallor since earlier."

"Uh, huh?" Makoto responded in confusion.

"You look pale." Kyoko stated flatly.

The brown-haired one flinched.

"I don't know!" He uttered, "I mean...I'm tired."

He had been feeling strange since the late afternoon, but, he had no idea that it was starting to show and it scared him.

Kyoko was going to say something else, but, growing ever anxious, Makoto started moving towards his room.

"We'll deal with it later," he groaned, starting feel dizzy, "it's so late, I just wanna turn in now, please."

Not waiting for a reply, Makoto quickly got his door open and closed it behind him, as he did, yet another an excruciating twinge struck his hand.

"Gah, ffff-" he winced.

He glanced down at his throbbing palm, which had turned an intimidating shade of red, it put an unsavory thought in his head.

"Oh, come on," he groaned, stumbling toward his bed, "we're so close, so close to getting out, we can't afford any distractions."

He then turned around and threw himself down onto his mattress, careful not to let his marred hand touch anything. As soon as his head made contact with his pillow, he was out.

Makoto slept through the night, though his slumber was anything but sound, as he kept having ominous dreams about Monokuma, Junko, and every possible worst case scenario that could follow, should they fail to escape. Regardless of the dreams' details or outcomes, they all shared the same trait, which was Junko trying to convince him to stay with her.

* * *

**(Meanwhile)**

Following the Morning Announcement, Sayaka curiously opened the door to her room and watched as many others left their rooms, with so many now having their memories back and knowing what had gone down the first time around, she was afraid to talk to anyone, for fear of what they thought of her now. Granted, she knew that she was not the only one who committed an unspeakable act while they were stuck there, but, she knew the way she went about her plan would be enough to destroy one's reputation for life.

Once enough people were out of their rooms, Sayaka left her own, as she did, she looked at Makoto's door, realizing that Luckster had not come out of his room like the others.

"_He's probably exhausted_," she thought, "_what he's doing would probably do a number on a person mentally and physically_."

She then walked past his room to the other end of the hall, stopping in front of another room, Leon's. Sayaka felt her heartbeat increase instantly; she realized that the baseball player also had not left his room with all the others.

It had been like this ever since the night they got their memories back, every time she showed up, would would disappear and vice versa, she did not know if that was the reason why Leon had not left his room, but, she wanted it to stop. She was tired of avoiding him and was tired of him avoiding her, she was not about to expect forgiveness, but, she would like to have at least some peace of mind.

"Leon..." she mumbled, staring at the doorknob.

Sayaka then slowly reached for the doorbell, but, stopped at the very last minute, her finger barely half an inch from making contact with the doorbell. She did not know why, but, the closer she got to the door, the more her anxiety set in.

"_What do I do_," she thought tensely, "_what do I say_? _What can I say_? _'I'm sorry', obviously, but, that alone doesn't resolve anything, it can't_! _A verbal apology can't possibly be enough to make up for what I did._"

She tried again to press the doorbell, she even grabbed her wrist with her free hand and tried to forced herself to do it, but, she just could not. She kept imagining what would happen if she did, what would happen if the door opened, if he did not immediately slam the door in her face, she expected perhaps some kind of verbal lashing.

"Come on," she told herself, "push it, you coward, push the damn button; just ring the bell and...whatever happens next...happens."

She began to retract her hand.

"Oh," she groaned sadly, "I can't, I want to...but...I just can't."

She lowered her head and brought her hands up to her face as her vision began to blur from the onset of tears.

"Why does this have to be so hard," Sayaka whimpered, "Makoto wants us to get along, because we have to work together to get out, and I can't even ring _his _damn doorbell to see him, dammit!"

She began to sniffle pitifully, unaware of anything going on around her.

Suddenly, Sayaka felt a pair of arms gently enfold her and pull her close, it felt so familiar and comforting she could almost stand to melt. She carefully lowered her hands, then raised her head to see who was holding her and flinched when she found out who it was.

"L-Leon?" she gasped quietly, had she not been secure, she surely would have collapsed to the ground in shock.

As surprised as she was, the thing that confounded her more than his hug was the look on his face, was not looking at her, in fact, it did not look like her was looking at anything at all. The look on his face seem thoughtful, tired, maybe a bit scared, it was hard to tell, he was clearly thinking about something and he was not happy about it.

"Um, I..." Sayaka tried to say, "I'm...I'm...so..."

"tell me something," Leon spoke suddenly, "and answer honestly."

Sayaka looked on curiously, the dismal tone in his voice, leaving her on edge.

"Am I..." he questioned hesitantly, "...stupid?"

"What?" the singer replied, puzzled.

"Tell the truth," the baseball player insisted tensely, "am I stupid...just a naïve fucking idiot? is that really the case?"

"I don't understand..." Sayaka said meekly.

"I only wonder," Leon expressed, "because, I can't think of any other reason _we_ ended up here..."

His words seemed vague, the idol was not sure how to respond, because she did not get what he was talking about. Was he asking if she blamed their situation on him? That it was his fault they ended up in such an unfortunate situation? If so, it was the complete opposite of what Sayaka had expected.

With that in mind, she felt she had response.

"Well, no," she said softly, "you're not stupid."

"But, then how did this happen?" the athlete wondered.

"_Because, I'm cruel,_" Sayaka thought, "_perhaps even unstable, but, why did I do something so cruel?_"

"This happened..." the singer affirmed, "because of Junko."

She looked around quickly, waiting to see if Monokuma would show up.

"What I did was wrong, I won't try to gloss over that like it's nothing," Sayaka expressed, "but, we can't deny that none of this would have happened if we hadn't been in the situation Junko put us in."

"Yeah, though, still I..." he responded aimlessly.

fearing what he would say next, Sayaka pressed her hand over his mouth, more forcefully than she intended.

"We could go back and forth on this forever," she said, "but, if we do, nothing is ever going to be resolved, the only way we're going to get past anything is if we put all of our transgressions aside and get the hell out of here! If we don't, we're done for and _she_ wins."

The baseball player seemed to think about it, then responded by nodding in agreement.

* * *

Somehow, despite a night full of taunting nightmares and discomfort, Makoto just could not bring himself to wake up, whenever he opened his eyes a wave of dizziness or pain would force him to drift off again. Because of the covered windows, he could not tell when or if the sun was coming up, though he felt so lousy, he did not pay much attention to that fact.

He honestly wanted to wake up, but, every time he closed his eyes, it felt like Junko was pulling him down into the darkness to keep him there.

**"_Come on, don't fight_," the mastermind would say, "_stay here with me_, _we'll have lots of fun_."**

**Makoto would try to protest, though, no matter how hard he tried, he could not give any response at all.**

**"_Won't you stay_, _my parasite_," Junko would implore sweetly, "_stay with me? You'd bring me so much despair; give it, I love it, so much_..."**

**Again, Makoto would open his mouth to react, but, nothing came out, he could not move, he could not breath, he felt like he was dying. It felt to him like it was never going to end, until...**

"Makoto?" he heard, "Makoto, can you hear me? Wake up!"

"_What the? Another dream_?" he thought hazily, "_No, not a dream, that's real_."

"You have to wake up, now," he heard, "it's morning!"

Fighting through the malaise, Makoto forced his eyes open to see who was trying to rouse him from his horrid sleep; to his surprise, it was Aoi standing over him with a worried expression on her face.

"Ah...Hina?" Makoto gasped quietly.

"Makoto, it's time to wake up," Aoi said, "it's almost ten o'clock!"

Her words slowly registered with the groggy Luckster.

"Almost ten...in the morning?" he responded, finally becoming alert, albeit weakly.

"_I slept through the Morning Announcement_? Makoto thought warily.

"We were starting to get kinda worried," the simmer told him, "so, they sent me to come get you."

"Huh, with that in mind I'm surprised Kyoko didn't come get me herself." Makoto said.

"Well, she would have," Aoi explained, "but, Monokuma was acting...weird...like, he was expecting something to happen, he's been hovering over us all day, whether we split up or meet up, he just shows up and sticks around for five to ten minutes. Because he was bugging Kyoko, I was sent to come find you myself."

If Monokuma was pestering everyone more than ever, then Makoto could only assume that the bear, and his master, were starting to suspect something was going on behind their backs.

"Damn," Makoto groaned, "we can't stop now, we've come so far, we can't afford to mess anything up."

Aoi nodded in agreement.

"You're right, the others agree with that as well," she voiced, "but, we shouldn't worry, as long as we stick together, we should be able to do this no problem."

Her positive outlook made the lucky one smile.

"Has anyone restored the memories of either of our remaining friends yet?" Makoto asked.

"Not yet," Aoi sighed, "we haven't been able to because of Monokuma."

She looked so disappointed.

"I wish we could do it soon," she said, "I'm dying to show Sakura the truth, she probably needs it more than anyone here, given the situation Monokuma put her in."

"Yeah, but, Mukuro definitely needs it too," Makoto replied, "after what her sister did to her, she definitely needs to know the truth of the matter."

"You're right," Aoi said, "now, let's get going, the other's are waiting."

Makoto nodded and quickly forced himself upright in bed, but, in his haste, aggravated his hand injury, sending an excruciating pain clear to his wrist. It was so bad, he could not keep himself from screaming in pain, after that, he collapsed back down to his pillow and blacked out.

* * *

**Makoto found himself lost in the darkness once again, tormented by images, not only of Junko of Monokuma, but, every member of the Ultimate Despair. First they would be cruel and taunting, then they would appear fearful and crying for help.**

**Literally, one moment it would be:**

**"_Junko will win_!"**

**The next it would be.**

**"_Please help us, we don't wanna be this way_!"**

**Once again, Makoto could never respond, no matter how much he wanted too or how hard he tried.**

**"_The Remnants..._" Makoto groaned anxiously, "_we...we can't forget about them,_ w_e can't...leave them behind."_**

**All of their faces flashed through his mind, first in their states of despair, then in their original states.**

**"_Is it possible_?" Makoto wondered, "_Could things go differently this time_?_ Once we get out_..._could we actually save them this time_?_ Save them all_?_"_**

**With that in mind, he began to think about his sister and everyone else's family members that had been imprisoned as their "motives" for escape. So many of them were lost to the despair and violence on the outside. But, now that they had been thrown back in time, he wondered if it was possible to change that as well.**

**"_Could we save them too_?" the hazy Luckster continued to think as he stumbled through the tormenting darkness, "_The people we care about most, we couldn't do anything last time, but, maybe this time_..._there's a chance_?"**

"Makoto?" he heard again, this time from a different voice.

It was then the darkness began to fade away and as he slowly made his way back into consciousness, he found himself staring into a harsh light.

"Makoto!" He heard again, "Are you there?"

He then noticed a visibly concerned Kyoko looking down at him.

"Can you hear me!?" she called urgently.

Makoto shuffled his body, realizing he was no longer lying in his bed.

"Uh, Kyo," he groaned, "where am I?"

"In the infirmary," she explained, "Aoi said you passed out, apparently you had a fever, which, it turns out, was cause from an infected wound on your hand...which you could have easily told us about anytime."

Makoto looked away guiltily.

"How did this happen?" Kyoko questioned, "Why didn't you say anything? Do you know how bad this would have gotten if we hadn't caught it now!?" It was obvious, she was worried and definitely pissed, just as he feared.

"It was...just an accident, I swear, I'm sorry I didn't say anything," Makoto sighed, "honestly, I didn't think it was that bad, I thought it would go away on its own."

Makoto tensed as she looked at him dubiously, the amount of frustration in her beautiful eyes was astounding. He was used to this look, he had seen it more than enough times, Kyoko hated having important information withheld from her and she hated it when something was wrong with him. She always seemed to think something bad was going to happened to him, the way she clung to him so possessively every night made that very clear.

"Just so you know, Sayaka told me what really happened the other night," Kyoko told him, "as soon as we found out what was wrong with you, she spilled everything on the spot; she regrets her actions deeply and I told her that was all that mattered."

Makoto looked on thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he said dismally, "I was afraid if I did...I wouldn't be allowed to take care of anything by myself."

Kyoko looked on curiously and Makoto became nervous, fearing that he had offended her, and quickly sat up on the bed he was lying on.

"Please, don't take it the wrong way," he attested, "I know we all have to work together and I love working with all of you, but, I don't wanna have to depend on everyone all the time, I wanna be able to handle things on my own, you know, in case we ever get separated or something. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Kyoko then grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him close.

"Okay, okay, okay," she soothed, "I get it, just calm down, you're still in poor condition, it's not good to get too worked up right now."

Makoto rested his head on her shoulder and placed a hand on her back.

"Let me guess," he sighed "I ruined everything, didn't I?"

"Actually," Kyoko informed him, "you...kinda gave us an advantage."

Makoto pulled back to look at her, wanting to make sure he understood what she was saying.

"When we found out you were sick, Mukuro, still in disguised, convinced Monokuma to open up the third floor so we could use the infirmary," Kyoko explained, "then, once we got you here with Sakura's help and Monokuma disappeared, Mukuro, for some reason, revealed her identity to us. Chihiro then took advantage of the situation and restored both hers and Sakura's memories."

So, it was done? Everybody now had their memories back?

"Is that right?" the lucky one asked for reaffirmation.

Kyoko nodded.

"I'm glad, so glad;" Makoto said, relieved, "but, now what? Where do we go from here?"

"Well, soon, we're gonna have to confront Junko," Kyoko voiced, "once you've fully recovered that is, probably shouldn't do anything major until then."

"So...what do we do until then?" he wondered.

"Well, seeing as everyone has their memories back," the sleuth said, "the best thing we can probably do now is...get reacquainted, play nice, prepare for what's to come."

Makoto nodded, then his mind began to fill with many thoughts all at once.

"Kyoko," he expressed tensely, "we...we have a lot of work to do...outside, you know."

"Yeah?" she responded.

"The Remnants of Despair, the Monokuma Kids...maybe," Makoto continued warily, "the imprisoned family members, we're gonna help them right? I mean, we can't just leave them behind, last time, there was nothing we could do, but, if everyone gets out of here, we should have a better chance...right?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, okay?" Kyoko replied, "For now, let's focus on getting our friends and ourselves out of here in one piece." Then, whether it was to quiet him down or make him feel better, Kyoko planted a kiss on his heated forehead. It was nice, but, somehow, it still was not enough to distract him from his thoughts about the outside. She must have sensed that, because, she followed her action up with, "I love you."

Following the proper lovers' protocol, Makoto replied, "I love you too."

* * *

Goddamn, I suck at romantic and sentimental moments, but, hell, I'm trying, I also had to find a way to get them to the third floor and get the last two characters' memories restored at the same time, so, yeah, that probably came off kinda sloppy.

Ah well, it could have turned out worse, anyway, more stuff to come.


	8. Chapter 8

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 8.

More stuff and whatnot.

* * *

After the long, painful process of having his wound reopened, cleaned out, and treated, Makoto was in his room, resting in bed. Since his fever had gone down slightly, he started feel a bit more comfortable, but, he still felt completely drained. He looked at his now properly bandaged hand, elevated on a pillow, and wiggled his fingers, it still felt rather tender, but, now that it was actually clean, it was easier to move.

Makoto was still worried about how the rest of their mission would play out, but, somehow, just knowing that everyone had their memories back now and were ready to work together gave him enough comfort to finally rest easily.

"_We're gonna win_," he thought confidently, "_I just know it_, _we're gonna win_, _and we_'_re all gonna get out of here together_,_ everything is going to be okay_."

"I'm sure Junko has more in store for us," he said aloud to himself, "she's not gonna let us go easily, but...one way or another...we're getting out of here."

The Luckster then yawned and drifted off to sleep, this time...surprisingly...no nightmares, strange dreams, but, no nightmares.

* * *

It was close to noon and all of the teenagers, minus Makoto, were all seated at one long table in the dining hall.

Now that everyone remembered and knew what was really going on, it was time to discuss where to go from there on out. All they had to do was keep a lookout for Monokuma while they spoke.

"So, how long will it take for Makoto to get better?" Sayaka whispered.

"In about a day or so," Kyoko responded, "he should at least be well enough to get up and around, we should be ready to act by then."

"Yes, well, on that note," Kiyotaka voiced, "we have _so many _questions."

"As expected," Byakuya said, "but, remember to watch what you say, it's still too early to let Monokuma overhear us."

There was a brief silence as everyone seemed to gather their thoughts.

"Okay, on the subject of getting out," Leon voiced, "when that time comes...what's gonna happen to us?"

"Please elaborate." Kyoko responded.

"I mean, as we have been informed, the world has gone to shit," the ex-athlete expressed, "we are aware of this, however, _my _concern is...when we get out, what are we to expect? Are we going to be fighting for our lives? Are going to have to go into hiding?"

"I hate agreeing with him," Hifumi spoke up, "but, unfortunately, he has a good point, what _are_ we to expect upon getting out of here?"

"Will we need weapons?" Celeste wondered, "Because, I can't say that I have any experience with weapons or combat."

As the conversation grew and questions kept coming, the former survivors began to grow increasingly paranoid of the possibility of Monokuma showing up.

"Enough!" Kyoko uttered, somewhat louder than she had meant to, she quickly lowered her voice, but, still spoke loud enough for everyone at the table to hear her, "Okay, I get it, you're all curious, you're all concerned, that's fine, we expected that much; however, we're not going to be able to discuss further game plans for the outside in full, at least not yet. All you need to know is that we're all better off out there than we are in here."

Her rebuttal seemed to silence the table once more.

Moments later, Monokuma showed up.

"Weeellllllll, here you all are," the bear said, "look at you all, sitting here so nicely, like you're at some kind of game developers' meeting."

"We're just...trying to pass the time." Aoi voiced coolly.

Monokuma then jumped onto the table.

"I see, now on an unrelated not," he inquired, "out of curiosity, how is our _patient _doing?"

"M-Makoto?" Chihiro responded, "He's..."

"Why?" Kyoko suddenly spoke.

Monokuma looked on curiously.

"Why is Makoto's condition any concern of yours?" the sleuth questioned.

"Jeez, so defensive," the bear expressed, "I was only curious, it would be so weird to me if the first death was brought on by natural or unnatural causes and not murder, I'm not at all prepared for that."

"Well, he's not gonna die," Aoi responded, "we took care of it."

"I know that," Monokuma said, putting his hands behind his back as he began to walk from one end of the table to the other, "and I gotta say, honestly, it's kind of annoying, giving you guys access to all these places when _nobody has killed or been killed yet_!"

"W-Well, nobody has felt l-like killing anyone," Toko asserted, "so g-get over it!"

Monokuma stopped walking and analyzed everyone sitting at the table.

"I see, so...motive number one wasn't enough to spur murderous intent, huh?" He affirmed, "So, I guess I'm just gonna have to go with the next motive."

Everyone listened closely with bated breath.

"Now, since motive one, the DVDs didn't work...surprisingly..." Monokuma announced, "here's motive two...which is..."

"Get on with it!" Celeste yelled.

"Don't rush me when I'm trying to be dramatic!" Monokuma snapped.

Celeste rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, your new motive is...this reveal..." he announced, "...Sakura...is a traitor!"

Once again, the entire table was reduced to silence.

"What did you say?" Byakuya was the first one to respond.

"You heard me," Monokuma reiterated, "Sakura works for the one responsible for trapping you all here!"

Everyone was stunned, even though they already knew that, but, the problem was that they were already getting that news.

Nobody was sure how to respond.

"Well...it is the truth." Sakura simply said.

"Then...that is...um..." Aoi spoke up, "I don't care!"

Monokuma looked at her strangely.

"Yeah, that's right," the swimmer attested, "I'm okay with that...I don't care if she is a spy...she's our friend!"

She looked around nervously.

"Right?" she added meekly, "Guys...your thoughts?"

Everyone looked at each other.

"I'm okay with it," Kyoko said, "she must have her reasons."

"Most likely she was forced by some means." Byakuya said.

"I-I'm not surprised," Toko voiced, "s-someone was bound to be a s-spy."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be fair to hold it against her," Yasuhiro affirmed, "right guys?"

They listened for the others' responses.

"Sakura is our friend," Chihiro expressed, "her situation is no different than ours, we're _all _here against our will, being forced to do things we don't wanna do, be goaded into hurting each other. We have no right to be upset with her."

"He's right," Leon said, "we can't judge, so, I'm cool with it."

"We've all done things we're not proud of," Mondo affirmed, "so I don't fucking care."

Everyone responded positively, much to Monokuma's confusion.

"Well then, if my friends can overlook my position," Sakura voiced, "then I guess I can forgive myself, thank you, everyone."

With that everyone went quiet and proceeded to act as if nothing had just happened.

"Uh, wh...really!?" he queried, "_none _of you care!? It doesn't bother _any _of you that someone you call a friend has been feeding information to the Mastermind!?"

"Kinda seems like overkill doesn't it?" Byakuya voiced, "You have cameras, you can show up whenever and wherever you wants, and you have access to things nobody can see; so, was a spy really necessary, or was that just to create tension? If so, your master must not be as creative as..._they_...would like us to believe."

Monokuma rushed straight to the progeny and got up in his face.

"Who do you think you are, huh!?" the bear asserted, "You're in no place to insult the Mastermind, you're all still trapped here and you all still have to follow our rules, think what you want, feel whatever you wish, say whatever the hell you feel like saying, SHE WILL NEVER LET YOU LEAVE THIS PLACE ALIVE!"

Byakuya was not fazed, instead, he threw Monokuma's proclamation right back at him.

"Really, _she _won't let us leave alive?" he inquired snidely, "So the one behind all of this is a girl?"

Monokuma seemed to be flustered by his slip-up.

"Gah! Eh, uh..." the bear stammered, "duh, that doesn't matter! Even if you know her gender, you still don't know who she is."

"I guarantee," Kyoko said, "we'll find out for ourselves very soon."

"Don't count on it," Monokuma attested, "you'll never reach the Mastermind if I can help it."

So much they could have said in return, but, they had to keep their information to themselves, just a little bit longer.

"Ugh, never mind all that," Monokuma growled, "my point is, forgiving somebody you know is a traitor makes absolutely _zero _sense!"

"Well then," Aoi said, "I guess we're just weird like that."

Monokuma shook with anger, then, stopped.

"Hey, ya know, something in your guys' responses stood out to me;" Monokuma voiced, "correct me if I'm wrong, but, did I hear Mr. Kuwata refer to Chihiro as "he"?"

Before Leon could respond, Chihiro did instead.

"Yeah, he did, because, I _am _a he," the programmer affirmed, "I'm a _boy _and everyone is aware of this already."

More silence.

"You...your rules don't forbid us from sharing secrets from each other..." Chihiro expressed meekly, "...we've already shared many secrets...I believe we should be as honest with each other as possible...you know...to ease the tension."

"Well, there can't be that much honesty," Monokuma said, "considering what you just learned.

"Yeah?" Aoi responded firmly, "And what would you have done to Sakura had she told us her secret? There's no way you would have let her get away with it!"

"Upupupup," Monokuma giggled, "guess you got me there."

"The point is, Monokuma," Aoi proclaimed, "there's nothing you can say or do that's going to create enough tension between all of us to drive anyone to kill! Push all you want, but, you cannot and will not force us to hurt each other!"

Everyone responded positively, backing up Hina's claim.

Monokuma looked very angry, then, he hung his head for several seconds, not saying a word.

"All right then, you've all made your point," Monokuma spoke, eerily calm, "you're all friends, we can't force you to hate or fear each other, you refuse to kill each other because these motives are...well...selfish and you're not about to kill each other for selfish reasons."

Nobody responded.

"Well then, I guess I'm going to have to come up with an _unselfish_ motive, something that really tests how good of friends you all really are;" Monokuma continued, "yes, it's so clear to me now, the Mastermind will love it. Okay, darling children, have fun getting all lovey with each other, because, the next motive is sure to be a real show stopper! Upupupup Ahahahahahahahahaha!"

With that he disappeared and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh God," Hifumi sighed, "I though he would never leave."

"This is weird," Chihiro voiced, turning his attention to Kyoko, "didn't you guys say that last time our second motive was our deepest, darkest secrets?"

"That was the case," Kyoko replied, "and the reveal of Sakura being a traitor was the very last motive that was given."

"So...why give us the motives out of order this time?" Byakuya added.

"D-Desperation?" Toko suggested, "It's the only think I-I can think of, it was the m-motive that created the most t-tension last time."

"Yeah, all this time has passed and not a single murder has taken place yet," Yasuhiro said, "that's got to have _her _tearing her hair by now."

"Well, what can we do?" Chihiro affirmed quietly, "It's not like any of these motives can get to us, because, we already know what they are."

"It's true, we do know what motive came last time," Kyoko expressed, "and two of them have already been used, albeit out of order, however, what Monokuma just said concerns me. A motive that's a real "show stopper", that can't be anything that he used before, he already knows the secrets are out and the only other motive was money. So...what else could he possibly have planned?"

"He said it would be an _unselfish _motive," Leon voiced, "so...what would that mean?"

"Is there really any such thing as an _unselfish _reason to take the life of someone you care about?" Chihiro wondered.

"Good reasons...possibly," Sakura sighed, "unselfish...that's debatable."

"So, what do we do in the meantime?" Mondo wondered, "Should we be worried or do we just go about our business like nothing is happening?"

"I would also like to know what to do next," Kiyotaka voiced, "this "Unselfish Motive" thing seems like something that shouldn't be ignored."

"W-We don't even know what the m-motive is yet," Toko said, "I don't think we sh-should think about it t-too much until we a-actually get it."

"She's got a point," Yasuhiro affirmed, "we don't even know what the motive actually is, so why worry about it right now? Who knows, maybe we'll escape before we actually get it."

"I wouldn't count on that," Kyoko said, "but, try to stay positive."

"She's right," Aoi responded, "for now, let's just try to keep it together and get along, we know that we're not enemies, not this time. Our enemy is _her_, _she _is the one trying to make us suffer, so, any unhappy thoughts you might have, direct them toward _her_!"

Toko then let out a deep sigh.

"N-Normally, I don't agree w-with her," the writer voiced, "b-but, right now, I guess c-cooperation is the key, we h-have to cooperate and the best way to d-do that, is to focus all your n-negative energy toward that psycho _b-bitch_ that trapped us in this hellhole and tried to g-get us to kill each other!"

It was quiet again for several seconds.

"Okay, you guys are right," Sayaka responded, "I mean, it is all _her _fault we're stuck here and we need to get passed _her_ to escape."

"You six made it out alive the first time," Chihiro said, "so...whatever you think is best, we trust you."

Everyone at the table responded with an affirmative nod.

"H-Holy rising pressure." Toko muttered tensely.

Just then Kyoko got up from the table and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Aoi asked.

"I'm taking this information to Makoto," she answered, "if we're gonna figure out what to do next, then we need _everyone _to be up to speed and prepared."

She then left the dining hall.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Monokuma already told Makoto everything he just told us." Chihiro stated.

"Even so," Aoi said, "I think she just doesn't wanna leave Makoto alone for too long, she tends to worry."

"So...does this conclude our meeting?" Celeste wondered.

"I don't think there's anything else we can discuss right now that won't end up being repetitive." Byakuya stated.

With that, everyone went their separate ways, though the remaining former survivors stayed at the table.

"What do you guys think?" Yasuhiro voiced, "Are you worried? I mean, I know we agreed not to worry, but, really, how do you guys feel about this "Unselfish Motive" thing? Because, honestly, I'm rather freaked out."

"I don't want to worry and I don't want anyone else to worry," Aoi sighed, "but, I don't think I'll be able to stop thinking about, no matter how positive I try to be."

"Yes, well," Byakuya said, "as concerning as it is, it's as we've discussed, we don't know what's coming our way, so, all can do is be prepared...for anything."

* * *

Meanwhile, Makoto was still asleep, absorbed in thought of getting all of his friends out of the school alive. Granted, he still thought about what to do about the Remnants of Despair and everything else that had to be dealt with outside, but, felt that if everyone got out with him, then it would all be fine.

He continued drifting aimlessly through sleep when he suddenly felt a hand touch his face, a gloved hand. At that, his eyes snapped open and he saw Kyoko standing at his bedside.

"Oh, Kyoko," he yawned, "what's going on? Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, everyone's physically okay," she replied, "but..."

Makoto looked on curiously.

"Monokuma has just given us the next motive." Kyoko told him.

"Oh, the secrets." the Luckster stated.

The sleuth shook her head in response.

"No, we don't know why, but, Monokuma mixed it up this time," Kyoko informed him, "for some reason, he skipped the secrets and the money motive and went straight to telling us that Sakura was a traitor."

"Wha...really?" Makoto responded, confused, "Why would he do that? I mean, obviously we already knew that, but, what would make him skip two motives and give us the most critical one?"

"We're not sure," Kyoko said, "but, that's not our main concern right now."

Makoto braced himself for more.

"Once we made it very clear that nothing he said or did would be enough to drive us to murder each other," Kyoko explained, "he decided he would take a different approach and told us that next time we would be getting what he called an "Unselfish Motive"."

"Unselfish Motive?" the lucky one voiced, "What does that even mean? By this point, I don't see what he could possibly have that would tempt us. For God's sake, he already showed us what they've done to our friends and families."

"That's the most concerning part," Kyoko said, "though, at the same time, we don't know what the motive is yet, so, how much we should worry at this moment in time is...we don't know."

"How did the others feel about it?" Makoto wondered.

"Nobody's gonna stop thinking about it any time soon, that's for sure," Kyoko said, "but, one thing's for certain, the former victims are counting on us to get them out alive. They have faith in us, which mean we need to stay positive...for them."

Makoto nodded in agreement and put on his distinct optimistic smile, yet, the words "Unselfish Motive" seemed to echo in his mind, leaving his thoughts anything but optimistic.

* * *

Oh God, I probably should have made this shorter...meh.

Anyway, yay, another chapter done, more progress; kinda rushed this near the end, 1. because I got impatient with myself for putting it off and 2. because I got excited and wanted to get it done as soon as possible.

More to come.


	9. Chapter 9

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 9.

Time for a moment.

* * *

"Ugh, I don't get it," Junko growled, pounding her fist down on the arm of her rotating chair, "how the hell has nobody died yet!?"

The Mastermind swiveled to her left and angrily kicked the box placed next to her away, causing it to toppled over and spill its contents, which happened to be the DVDs given as the failed, first motive, the envelopes containing the students' deepest secrets, which would have been the next motive, and the money that would have been the motive used after that.

In her desperate bid to incite a murder, she discarded two motives, in hope that the one that would have been the last one would have given her what she wanted. Unfortunately for her, it failed, based on what she had seen and heard, nobody seemed to be bothered by the idea that a spy was hiding among them. Even if they were only pretending to be okay with it, it still pissed Junko off.

"I don't know what their deal is," the ex-model huffed, "but, this shit is getting old real fast."

"I don't understand it either," Monokuma said as he appeared in the room, "we've trapped them in the most unfair of situations and have given them so many good reasons to kill each other, but, nobody has made move. It's like they really don't give damn."

"Well, that's about to change," Junko affirmed, getting up from her seat, "because, there's no way in hell that they'll take this next motive lying down."

She pushed a button on the control panel in front of her, which opened up a metal hatch in the floor and raised a platform.

The Mastermind took Monokuma in her arms and walked over to the raised platform, which held the base of the next motive, the "Unselfish Motive", she had in store for her captives. It was a..."device", the size of an oven, round, metal, painted to look like Monokuma, and had a long, wide screen on the front of it which displayed a currently dormant timer.

Squeezing Monokuma tightly in one arm and affectionately rubbing the "device" with her free hand, Junko laughed confidently.

"Well see how tightknit they really are," she giggled, looking at her reflection in the "device's" display screen, "when we throw this motive at them...ahhhh...I can taste the despair now."

"When do we tell them, Master?" Monokuma wondered eagerly.

"Seeing as the last motive did nothing, let's count that one as nullified," Junko affirmed, "tomorrow, _this _will be the motive to end all motives, this will be our grand finale, except...this ain't no firework."

* * *

Suckish implications are suckish, but, based on what's being said, I am pretty sure all ya'll have already figured out what they are talking about.

Sorry, it is so short, but, I wanted to do a chapter with Junko in the spotlight, as much as I dislike her, the villain needs to have some screen time to build up to their big entrances or grand finales.

Anyway, more hope and despair to come, hopefully not too long.


	10. Chapter 10

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 10.

I know it may seem sudden, but, we are jumping to that Unselfish Motive right now, like, I just cannot wait and I should not have to put it off too long. So yeah, we are doing this now.

* * *

"ATTENTION, ATTENTION STUDENTS," Monokuma announced over the monitors, "IT IS NOW 7:00 A.M., TIME FOR A BRAND NEW DAY! WITH THAT, I ASK THAT ALL STUDENTS, ONCE UP AND AROUND, REPORT TO THE GYMNASIUM. FOR I HAVE A _VERY _IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE, WHICH IS SURE TO BE A REAL **_BLAST_**! SEE YA ALL THERE!"

Upon hearing the grating announcement, Kyoko opened her eyes, having remembered that there were no rules against it, she had spent the night in Makoto's room, having slept in a chair. She immediately leaned over and gently shook the sleeping Luckster's shoulder, "Makoto," she said, "Makoto wake up." Makoto's slowly opened his eyes, "Monokuma just made his morning announcement," Kyoko explained, "and he wants us to go to the Gym, said he wants to tell us something important."

"Uh oh," Makoto groaned, "I don't like where this is going."

After verifying his condition, which he chalked up to being "A little better", he got out of bed; regardless of how he physically felt, he knew he probably would not get away with skipping out on Monokuma's announcement.

"You ready?" he asked Kyoko.

"It's not like we have a choice either way," she said, "let's see if we can't get this thing done."

Makoto opened the door to his room and as if on cue, so did everyone else, then, they all stepped out into the hallway at nearly the same time. Nobody said anything, they merely exchanged looks with one another, some nervous, some determined, then proceeded to walk, in a surprisingly orderly fashion, to the Gymnasium, with the six former survivors leading the way. As soon as they walked through the doors, there Monokuma was, standing on the stage, this time with his back turned to group.

Once he knew they were there, Monokuma turned around, "Well, hello students, I see you wasted no time getting here, how diligent."

"What's this important announcement you have for us?" Kyoko questioned.

"Oooh, eager are we?" Monokuma laughed, "upupup, I like that."

"Get to the point already," Byakuya asserted, "we're not gonna wait all day."

"Yeesh, persistent too," Monokuma responded, "guess there's no beating around the bush with you guys."

At that moment, Monokuma began to walk back and forth on the stage.

"As you know, the other day, following the surprising failure of my latest motive," Monokuma expressed, "we all came to a conclusion, which was that none of you were about to kill anyone you cared about for a selfish reason. You see, it was with that realization, I decided to go at it from another angle, which was, if none of you are willing to kill anyone for _your own _sake, then, maybe you'll off someone, for_ everyone else's_ sake?"

As soon as he said "everyone else's sake", the teenagers were stunned.

Makoto could only think of one thing, "_The Unselfish Motive_!"

"...Whiiiiich brings me to our new motive," Monokuma continued, "and I know what you're all thinking 'an new motive, so soon?', and my answer is, yes, students, I am giving you your new motive right away, you know why? Because, I see no point in making you guys wait anymore and at the same time, I am absolutely done waiting for death and or despair to happen! So, here it is, your new motive, the motive to end all motives, the motive that I assure will be a real _**blast**_!"

As he said that, the Gym suddenly got real dark and a large monitor screen lowered down behind Monokuma.

"Student, behold," the bear announced, "my latest and greatest creation!"

The monitor turned on and on screen an image appeared, that of a large, round object, done up to look like Monokuma, with a timer on the front, currently displaying all zeros. It did not take anyone too long to realize what they were looking at.

"No...no fucking way..." Mondo said aloud.

"That's a..." Chihiro whimpered.

"That's right," Monokuma voiced, "feast your eyes on my beautiful 'Bomb-o-kuma', 'Monobomb", 'Mono-boom-a'...you get it."

"A BOMB!?" Makoto uttered.

"What the hell kind of motive is this?" Aoi questioned.

"Listen closely, all of you, first off, that rule about only one person being able to leave if you kill someone...completely out the window as of now," Monokuma proclaimed, "now, if you kill someone, then you all get to go free."

"The fuck does that have to do with the bomb?" Leon uttered.

"Getting there," Monokuma went on, "once we're done here, the bomb will be set to go off in three days, got it, _three days_, if within three days someone dies, then the bomb will be deactivated and all surviving members will be free to leave the school. However, if three days passes and _nobody _dies, then Hopes Peak gets blown all to hell, taking every last one of you with it!"

The group was shocked, it was very clear that Monokuma was no longer messing around.

"And before you all decide to lie down and accept your fate, I want you all to look at something." Monokuma said.

Just then the screen changed, this time to what looked like map of the town surrounding Hope's Peak. There was a red X marked on Hope's Peak and a large circle drawn around the entire town itself.

Monokuma then pulled out a laser pointer and used it on the screen.

"As you can see," he explained, rotating the red laser in a circular motion around the X on Hope's Peak, "this is you, this is Hope's Peak, the sight of where the bomb has been placed. This..." he then directed the laser to the circle surrounding the town itself, "is the estimation of the bomb's blast radius, as in, everything that will be caught up in the bomb's explosion."

As they all stared at the diagram, they came to a horrifying realization.

"But...that's..." Makoto gasped, "the entire town!"

"You're telling us that if that bomb goes off, not only will Hope's Peak be destroyed, but, also everything around it and beyond?" Chihiro questioned fearfully.

"That's ri-ight," Monokuma affirmed, "if or when that bomb does indeed go off, the entire town outside will most definitely be obliterated, and, while it may not be an ideal place of residence anymore, there _are _people still living out there, struggling to survive, all of which will caught up in that explosion most foul, should it come to that."

"Which means, if we refuse to act on this motive," Kyoko sighed, "not only will we die, but, so will hundreds, maybe more, of innocent people who have nothing to do with this."

"Which is why this has been classified as an "Unselfish Motives"," Byakuya expressed, "either somebody in here dies, sparing everyone else in here and out there or we do nothing and resign ourselves and everyone out there to a fiery death."

Everyone was silent as they took in what they were just told, the motive itself was not only "Unselfish" but it was also "Unfair".

"Now hold on." Celeste voiced, "how do we know what we're being told is true? Monokuma could be lying about how powerful the bomb is, in fact, that bomb could be a complete fake."

"Yeah, how do we know you're not fucking with us?" Mondo questioned.

"Even if it has a timer," Kiyotaka, "that doesn't indicate that it's a real bomb, for all we know, that could just be a giant counter made up to look like a bomb."

Monokuma hung his head and let out a heavy sigh.

"Well, I guess you all have a point, I have no way of proving the bomb's authenticity easily," the bear responded, "that is, the only true way I could do it is to...well...detonate it. But, are you all really willing to take that risk?"

Nobody said anything.

"That's what I thought," Monokuma said, "now, don't forget, you got three days to make a decision...kill or KABLAMMO! Upupupupupupupu!"

With that, he dismissed the group of alarmed teenagers and disappeared.

"Well...shit." Yasuhiro stated tensely.

* * *

Another relatively short chapter (compared to the others), but, I like taking a break from doing long chapters, seriously, they kill me.

Anyway, coming up, how they will deal with the bomb threat and moral dilemma on hand.


	11. Chapter 11

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 11.

Moving on, now that the "Unselfish Motive" has been giving, the characters now must figure out how to get around it without having to result to murder.

* * *

Following Monokuma's announcement, in which he had given the captives their most consequential motive yet, the teenagers regrouped, this time in the locker room, remembering that it had no cameras. No matter what advantage they had, they wanted to have as much privacy as possible when they spoke amongst themselves.

Right now, everyone was quiet, as they ruminated their current situation, it seemed like there was no getting around the motive this time. Still, nobody wanted to even consider the idea of killing.

"Okay, could somebody say or do something, please," Celeste voiced, "Anything? Because, I think I'll go mad if this silent inactivity goes on any further."

"W-What are we suppose to s-say or do?" Toko groaned, "You heard M-Monokuma told us, either somebody here d-dies, or this place, along with the entire t-town, get's blown to h-hell!"

"Did you know about this?" Aoi asked Mukuro.

"I heard her talking about the Unselfish Motive," the soldier sighed, "but, I didn't know the full details, she never told me about the bomb."

"I also went uninformed." Sakura stated.

"Up until now, from the first time and this time," Kyoko voiced, "Monokuma's motives have been strictly subjective, but, now he's put us in a position that forces us to think of more than just ourselves or even each other."

"Right, it's not just _us _at stake this time," Makoto affirmed, "it's the entire town."

"And everyone in it." Aoi added.

"Maybe we're thinking to hard about this," Celeste said, "I mean, regardless of the situation, Monokuma can't _force_ us to kill. He can put us in the tightest spot imaginable, but, he can't _make _us do anything."

"But, if we do nothing," Sayaka voiced, "not only will _all of us_ die, but, so will the hundreds of people, maybe more, trying to get by out there!"

"That is, _if _the bomb is genuine," Celeste argued, "we haven't seen the bomb in person, we don't know if it's real or not. Plus, is it really out of the question that Monokuma would pull a fake bomb scare just to rile us up?"

"Where you're coming from makes sense," Byakuya said, "but, because we don't know of the bomb's authenticity for sure, we can't really afford to risk doing nothing."

His response silenced the gambler.

"Which is why," Byakuya continued, "we should probably start thinking about our recourse...in case we can't find a way around this."

"What are you...saying?" Aoi wondered warily.

"I mean, if it comes to the point where we've come down to the wire with no way to get out of this," Byakuya expressed, "then...someone may have to...take one for the team."

His claim shocked everyone into silence.

"Wait..." Makoto inquired tensely, "you're suggesting that we pick two of our friends to sacrifice?"

"First off, I said if it came down to it and we couldn't find any way out of it," Byakuya affirmed, "second, it wouldn't necessarily have to be two people. Don't forget, Monokuma classifies suicide as murder..._if _it comes to that."

"I get what you're saying," Makoto replied tensely, "but, still, to ask someone to kill themselves, that just doesn't seem..."

"I'll do it." they suddenly heard.

All eyes turned to Mukuro.

"M-Mukuro?" Aoi uttered curiously.

"If it ends up coming to that," the disguised mercenary attested, "then...let it be me, I'll do myself in and let you guys escape."

Everyone looked at her in awe.

"It makes the most sense doesn't it," Mukuro expressed soberly, "if you think about it logically, I am the most expendable person here."

"Mukuro..." Makoto responded thoughtfully.

"Besides, I've helped fuel the despair long enough," the soldier voiced, "now I just want out, even if it means I have to die to make that happen."

"Hey, come on now," Chihiro said, "no need to be so hasty, we still have three days ahead of us."

"Three minutes or three days," Leon sighed, "it doesn't change the fact that a massive explosive that will annihilate our very existence is hovering right over our heads."

Chihiro thought about it solemnly.

"Hey, Mukuro," Yasuhiro wondered, "couldn't you just...take the thing that opens the door from Junko so we could get out...ya know, provided you're really on our side."

"Even if I did," Mukuro replied, "we'd still have the threat of the bomb."

Silence once more.

"Wait a minute," Kyoko requested, "Leon, repeat what you just said before."

"Wha?" Leon responded.

"What you said regarding the bomb." Kyoko affirmed.

"I basically said: the amount of time we have left doesn't change the fact that it's hovering over our heads," he replied, "is that what you meant?"

"Yeah," Kyoko voiced, "tell me, what did you mean by 'it's hovering over us'?"

"Um, well," the tall redhead responded, "I said that because in the image Monokuma showed us of the bomb, it looked like it was on the roof, ya know, above us. So, that's why I said that it was over our heads."

"Now that you mention it," Kiyotaka voiced, "yeah, in that image, it did look like the bomb was on the roof, but, why does that matter?"

Kyoko then looked as if something had crossed her mind.

"You look like you're on to something." Makoto said.

"Quick thought," she queried, "why plant the bomb on the roof? Why not in the basement or the Headmaster's office?"

Everyone though about it.

"Maybe..." Chihiro said, "because, it's probably the one place we wouldn't be able to gain access to."

"Right," Kyoko replied, "that's exactly what they think."

"Huh?" Makoto responded curiously.

"Let's say we did gain access to the roof," Kyoko offered, "and that we somehow managed to disable that bomb, where would that leave us?"

Everyone looked at one another as they thought about it.

"Well, if we found a way to the roof and dealt with the bomb," Mondo voiced, "there wouldn't be any need for us to stick around."

"Exactly." the sleuth stated, smiling slyly.

"Where are you going with this?" Byakuya wondered.

"Seeing as they were able to plant the bomb on the roof, there must be a way to get up there," Kyoko voiced, "so, Mukuro, do you know of any possible way to access the roof?"

Mukuro thought about it, looking around.

"Well..." the soldier replied, "if I remember correctly, back when we were setting all this up, we did come across a door to a stairwell which led up to the roof. But, that was one of the first things we blocked off. But. I doubt that's how Junko or Monokuma got that bomb to the roof."

"But, you remember where that door is?" Kyoko pressed.

"Wait a minute..." Makoto responded, "Kyoko...are suggesting...that _we _go to the roof? To the bomb?"

Kyoko nodded.

"Interesting plan," Byakuya voiced, "but, two problems make that impossible, one, getting to the roof would require us to get outside, which, without access to any of the controls, is impossible, two, even if we did get to the roof and find the bomb...then what? What are we supposed to do then?"

"If we find the bomb, we verify its authenticity once and for all," the sleuth affirmed, "if it's a fake, we just leave it..."

"And...if it's the real deal?" Aoi wondered.

"Then...we deactivate it," Kyoko stated, "obviously."

More silence.

"Deactivate the bomb?" Hifumi voiced, "Would anyone here know how to do that?"

"I know a few things about explosives," Kyoko replied, "but, I'd need some help."

"I've studied many things in my day," Kiyotaka said, "but...I don't recall bomb deactivation to be one of them. _Making_ explosives, maybe, but, defusing...no, sorry."

"The most explosive things I've ever dealt with were fireworks." Mondo stated.

"I...might be able to help there, actually," Mukuro said, "yeah, we went over that in training, I just hope I can remember all the details."

Then, Chihiro raised his trembling hand.

"Um...I don't know a whole lot about bombs," he voiced, "but...with Alter Ego's help, I've accomplished quite a lot, I mean, we've managed to come this far mostly because of that, so...maybe we can lend a hand in some way."

"Well, looks like we have a makeshift bomb squad," Kyoko voiced, "now, we just have to figure out the most important part."

"Which would be...getting to the roof?" Makoto replied.

"Well, if Mukuro helped block it off," Bykuya said, "then, she should remember where that stairwell is."

Mukuro thought about it.

"I do..." the soldier said, "however, it's blocked pretty well."

"Show us," Kyoko urged, "if we get a good look at it, maybe we can get an idea of how to get through."

"All right," Mukuro replied, "Monokuma isn't expecting anyone to go that, but, we'll still have to keep an eye out for him."

"O-Or..." Toko suggested, "couldn't somebody distract M-Monokuma, I mean, I couldn't, 'cause I'm a terrible l-liar, but, it would probably make the t-trip easier for whoever goes with the m-mercenary."

"That could work," Makoto said, "if someone was willing and able to do it."

Celeste then raised her hand, smiling

"Queen of Liars," she giggled, "at your service."

"Well, that's settled," Aoi asked, "but, now, who goes with Mukuro?"

Everyone thought about it.

"I'll go," Chihiro said, "I could use my phone to get some good pictures and scan the blocked off route with Alter Ego to see if we can find any weak points."

"I'll go too," Mondo attested, "I wanna see it for myself."

"C-Could I maybe go t-too?" Toko asked, "Not that a-anyone would want me to, b-but, I also wanna see this for m-myself."

"Okay," Mukuro inquired, "so, Chihiro, Mondo, and Toko, anyone else?"

"That should be enough," Kyoko said, "if you guys are just going to scope it out and get pictures."

"Okay, so those four are going to look at our possible route to the roof," Kiyotaka voiced, "and Celeste is going to distract Monokuma, then...what do the rest of us do?"

"I suppose someone could help me with Monokuma," Celeste offered, "even if I am good liar, there's guarantee that I alone will be able to hold his interest for very long."

"Maybe I could help with that." Yasuhiro offered.

"Wow," Toko scoffed, "you o-offering to help, that's a rarity."

"Well, everyone else is volunteering to do stuff," the fortune teller argued, "and I don't know what the hell else I could possibly do in this situation."

"Anyway," Hifumi said to Celeste, "allow me to be of assistance in your endeavor as well."

Celeste shrugged in response.

"Hey," Mondo voiced, "if we're gonna get pictures of this thing, then wouldn't it probably help to have a laptop on hand, you know, to get a better look at them? Chihiro, you have a laptop, right?"

"Yeah, there's one in my room," Chihiro said, "if someone could get it and have it ready for me here when we get back, that would help."

"On it." Leon said.

"Great," the programmer responded, "then, you'll need this to get into my room."

He handed his room key over to the baseball player.

"While we're all at it," Kyoko said, "I'll go get the map of the school so we can get a better idea of where to go from here."

"I'll go find some paper and something to write with," Kiyotaka said, "it would probably help if we document everything we plan from here on out."

"All right then," Kyoko said, "just make sure to keep everything you write down with you, it would be bad if Monokuma found any of it."

"Well, I think that'll be enough for now," Byakuya said, "we'll gather what we need now, then, we move on to the real deal."

Everyone seemed to agree with the plan, once they went over their jobs once more, they parted ways to do what they had agreed to do. Once they had all gone, the last five who had not been given a task remained in the locker room.

"Do you really think we'll be able to do this?" Sayaka wondered, "Disable the bomb and escape that is?"

"We're not sure," Makoto said, "but, we have to try, all we can do is try."

"If it doesn't end up working," Aoi voiced, "we'll just have to go back and try again, but, I really hope it doesn't come to that, seeing as we've made it so far already."

"Even if something goes wrong and we get caught by Monokuma or Junko," Sakura voiced, "I'd rather die trying to escape than fall into their trap again."

"Whatever we end up doing next," Byakuya said, "I doubt it will go unnoticed by the bear and _her _for too long, but, even so, we have our own advantages. Plus, should our plan fail, we still have our plan B to fall back on."

"Plan B," Sayaka responded, "you mean, Mukuro..."

"Come on," Makoto attested, "let's not think about that, let's think about getting out of here and saying goodbye to this place once and for all."

The four seemed to take his words seriously, nodding in response.

The Luckster then felt a mild wave of dizziness hit him, but, he managed to fight it off; despite feeling better he still felt the lingering after affects of his wound infection.

"Makoto, since you're not doing anything right now," Sayaka said, "maybe you should sit down for a while."

"Yeah, you still look a bit sluggish." Aoi stated.

"It's okay," the lucky one replied, "I'm feeling a lot better than I did before."

"That may be," Sakura said, "but, it's clear that you're still not fully recovered and pushing yourself too hard won't do you any good."

"Plus, if you end up passing out or something, Kyoko will probably freak out and get pissed at us," Byakuya affirmed, "in case you couldn't tell, she's a real hardass when it comes to _you_."

With that, Makoto reluctantly slumped down in one of the nearby chairs to ease his friends worries and wait for the rest of them to return.

"_Ugh_," he thought, "_please, God, let us get out of here soon_."

* * *

I am way more excited than I should be writing this, I cannot wait to get to the end!

Next chapter and onward, it's go time for the Ultimates.


	12. Chapter 12

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 12.

The time has come for the Ultimates to get everything they need for their great escape! Here we go!

* * *

The Ultimates went into action as they prepared for their great escape, getting together what they needed to start planning. First, Kyoko ran to her room to collect the map of Hope's Peak that she had grabbed early on. She also grabbed a sharpie on her way out.

At the same time, Kiyotaka went to one of the classrooms and found some pens and a pad of paper, which they would need to better layout their game plane.

* * *

Then, Celeste, Hifumi, and Yasuhiro went to the Gym and called for Monokuma, in hopes of distracting him while their friends got what they needed.

"Oh, Monokuma," Celeste called, "do a you have a moment?"

Just like that, Monokuma showed up out of nowhere like he usually did.

"You rang?" the bear responded.

"Ah, there you are," Celeste said, "we were hoping you could...share some knowledge with us."

"Yeah," Yasuhiro voiced, "we have some questions that have been bugging us for a while."

"Is that so?" Monokuma replied, "Would any of those questions have to do with the bomb? The Mastermind?"

"Well..." Hifumi started to say.

"Actually," Celeste affirmed, "no, our questions are about...well...you."

Monokuma looked on curiously.

"Yeah," Hifumi said, "we wanna know some things about you?"

"Really," the robotic bear inquired, "like what exactly."

They thought about it.

"Like...how do you get clean?" Yasuhiro asked, "You say you're cuddly like a stuffed animal, but, you're also mechanical on the inside right? So, yeah, how do you like...bathe? Can you bathe?"

"Yeah...that." Celeste stated flatly.

"Or...what do you run?" Hifumi wondered, "Are you battery powered? Chargeable? Do you run on some kind of oil?"

"Sure." Celeste said in the same dry tone.

"Hmm..." Monokuma queried, "I wonder...what brought on this curiosity all of a sudden, you've all been here for a while, so, why now?"

Quick with the lies, Celeste answered.

"Well, seeing as we don't have a lot of time left now," she expressed, "we figured that we might as well find out what we can, you know, so we don't leave any questions...trivial or not...unanswered."

"Ah..." Monokuma replied, "so, tying up looses end, I see, well, in that case, I guess I could humor you in the time you have left, so, pull up a chair, dear children, and I will tell you what you wanna know about Monokuma."

* * *

With Monokuma distracted, the others sprang to complete their objectives while they had the chance.

Mondo, Chihiro, and Toko cautiously followed Mukuro as she led them to the blocked off route to the roof, where the bomb had been placed. When they got there, they realized that Mukuro had been serious when she said she and Junko had blocked it _really _good. It appeared that they had taken load upon loads of rubble from outside and piled it against the wall, blocking the door to the roof, then they had secured the entre thing with logging chains bolted to the walls in front of it and barbed wire woven around the chains.

"Holy shit." Mondo uttered.

"Christ," Toko voiced, "r-really!? we're human t-teenagers, not elephants!"

"Well, we didn't expect anyone to ever find this," Mukuro explained, "even so, Junko wasn't about to take any chances."

Chihiro held up his phone and proceeded take pictures and use Alter Ego to collect analyses on their potential escape route.

"So, Chihiro," Mondo wondered, "what's the situation? Do we have a chance?"

Chihiro finished the last of his scrutiny before he finally answered.

"It'll take some work," the programmer answered, "but, with some combined effort, I think we have a chance to get through."

"You b-better be right," Toko said authoritatively, "we're trusting your j-judgment here."

"Right, I understand," Chihiro replied, "we've come so far, if I let anyone down by this point, all our progress could be destroyed."

"Don't worry," Mondo affirmed, "we know you won't let us down, I trust you."

"I agree." Mukuro stated.

"Thanks, you guys," the programmer said gladly, "I'm relieved to hear that."

"All right," Toko attested, "I-I think we should hurry back now, n-not sure how much longer those three c-can keep Monokuma d-distracted."

"Okay then," Chihiro voiced, "I hope Leon has my laptop there by the time we get back."

* * *

At that time, Leon carefully made his way to the hallway, going to collect Chihiro's laptop.

After verifying the correct room, he used the key given to him to open the door.

"Hey." he heard suddenly.

He looked around and found Sayaka standing behind him.

"What the-" he responded, "what are you doing here?"

"I got bored and kinda anxious waiting with the others," she explained, "so, I decided to check and see what progress has been made."

"Okay, but, why follow me?" the baseball player questioned, "I was given the most basic task out of everyone."

"So...do you want me back?" she asked solemnly.

"Uh..." he replied awkwardly, "...just do whatever you want, I guess."

Leon opened the door to Chihiro's room and walked in, with Sayaka remaining in the doorway, playing the lookout. Monokuma was distracted, but, that did not mean that it was impossible for Junko to see something.

"Okay," Leon said, grabbing the laptop, "got it."

With that, they headed back to the locker room.

* * *

Kyoko returned to the locker room first with the map and sharpie in hand.

"I'm back." she said.

"Hey," Aoi wondered, "did you run into any trouble?"

"Of course not," Kyoko responded, "it was one of the easiest jobs."

"Right," the swimmer said, "just making sure."

Then, Kiyotaka returned to the locker room with their note taking supplies in hand.

"All right," he announced, "I managed to get what we needed without any trouble, we should be able to take note of everything we decided from now on."

"Good job, Taka." Makoto said.

At that moment, Leon and Sayaka made it back.

"Yo," Leon informed them, "I got Chihiro's laptop."

"And we ran into no problems on the way back." Sayaka added.

"You know his was only a one person job, right?" Byakuya voiced.

"Well, I got bored and restless waiting," the singer responded, "besides, nobody said that I couldn't leave the locker room for any reason."

Right then, Celeste, Hifumi, and Yasuhiro entered the locker room.

"Greetings all," Celeste sighed, "we're back."

"Not soon enough," Hifumi groaned, "I don't how much longer we could stand to listen to Monokuma rave about himself."

"We stalled him for as long as we could," Yasuhiro voiced, "but, eventually, he lost interest, here's hoping those four get back soon."

They all waited anxiously and five minutes later, Mukuro, Mondo, Chihiro, and Toko finally returned to the locker room.

"Great, you guys made it," Makoto voiced, "how did it go? Any trouble?"

"No, thankfully," Mukuro said, "we got what we needed without incident."

"I got lots of pictures," Chihiro affirmed, "looking at it, we definitely got some ideas."

"And I brought your laptop." Leon stated.

Chihiro quickly hooked his phone up to his laptop, downloaded all of the information he had collected, and opened it up. Everyone got as close as they could to get a look at what the programmer had gotten.

"So, we looked closely at the...uh...barricade...in front of the door to the roof and, at first glance, it looks impossible," he explained, scrolling through the pictures on the screen, "however, the more we looked at it, the more we became inspired; first off, if you look closely, the mess is secured with chains and barbed wire. I know it looks bad, but, with the right tools, we could definitely bypass it."

"You make it sound like it'll be easy to do." Yasuhiro responded.

"L-Let him finish!" Toko groaned in annoyance.

"Now, the rubble itself," Chihiro continued, "I think, it could be cleared away by hand, but, it would definitely have to be a joint effort. With the scans I took with Alter Ego, I think I found some potential weak points where it'll be easier to pull stuff away."

The others continued to listen closely.

"Now, according to Mukuro," the programmer went on, "the door itself is locked and apparently the door handle is wrapped in barbed wire. Again, I think we have the means to get around that."

"Sounds positive so far," Kyoko voiced, "are there any issues at all that we may need to take into account?"

Silence as Chihiro thought about it.

"Actually," Mukuro spoke up, "while were looking at it, I voiced an idea."

"Which is..." Kyoko responded.

"I suggested that if we get to the roof, seeing as we'd be outside anyway," the soldier voiced, "why not just escape the place from there?"

"Escape...down the roof?" Makoto wondered, "Could we really do that?"

"I figure you don't expect us to jump," Byakuya inquired, "but, how would we go about doing that? You have a plan for that in mind?"

"Well, there's gotta be something in this school that could allow us to scale down to the street below," Mukuro expressed, "rope, wire, cords, something; we'll tear shit out of the walls if we have to. It wouldn't even have to reach all the way to the ground, it would just have to reach low enough to the ground so that we could drop down without sustaining any injuries."

"It would have to be something strong enough to hold _everyone _who scales down," Aoi said, "it wouldn't do us any good if it broke on the first try."

"We'll find s-something," Toko sighed, "like the soldier said, there's g-gotta be something in this place that could c-come in handy for our escape."

Everyone thought about it.

"Should we just...get down to business now?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah, we'd better," Kyoko said, "there's no telling how much longer we'll be able to stay in here before Monokuma comes looking for us."

She laid the map out on the counter, while everyone gathered closely around her.

"All right, we need to do this fast," the sleuth voiced, "first off, seeing as this is our plan for escape, should we even bother trying to be discreet? Mukuro?"

"Don't bother," Mukuro said, "just leave Monokuma to me, seeing as I have access to his controls, he'll be the first thing to go."

"What about Junko?" Makoto asked, "How will you be able to do that without her noticing?"

"Again," the mercenary assured them, "just let me worry about that."

"In that case," Kyoko attested, "those security cameras and monitors gotta go, I don't care how any of you do it, just, get rid of them."

"So, basically, you want us to just wreck the shit," Mondo responded, "I think we can manage that."

"It will be an easy endeavor." Sakura said.

"When that's done," Byakuya said, "I'm guessing we move on to clearing off our escape route, which, as stated, will require tools."

"Didn't Monokuma give all the guys tool kits?" Aoi wondered.

"That's right," Kiyotaka responded, "and he never took them away from us."

"Right," Yasuhiro said, "so, we'll get some of those ready."

"Okay," Hifumi voiced, "so, we got our way out, but, do have a plan regarding the bomb."

"We already talked about that," Leon said, strangely annoyed, "Mukuro, Chihiro, and Kyoko are gonna take care of it."

The otaku sighed deeply, unamused.

"I'm gonna let that unnecessary tone slide," Hifumi said flatly, "and just admit that I forgot about the aforementioned detail."

The baseball player rolled his eyes.

"Anyway..." Kyoko continued, "we have all that covered, Kiyotaka, I trust that you've written this all down?"

"Don't worry," the prefect replied, "I noted every word."

He showed her the notes he already got before continuing.

"So, what's the first thing we should do?" Sayaka wondered, "Obviously we have our goal set, but, where do we actually start?"

"Well, Mukuro, does Junko ever go to sleep?" Kyoko asked.

"Of course," Mukuro answered, "and when she does, she gives Monokuma free reign of the place and leaves the monitoring to him."

"_When_ would you say she usually goes to sleep?" Kyoko pressed.

"She usually holds out until midnight at the latest," Mukuro said, "then she wakes up sometime before the morning announcement, usually around 6:30, and make me bring her and Monokuma breakfast."

Kyoko thought about it.

"I wonder, if we could perhaps prolong Junko's sleep somehow." she mused.

Everyone else thought about it.

"You mean...like...maybe...drugging her?" Chihiro responded, "Could that even be done...Mukuro?"

"I..." Mukuro replied thoughtfully, "...well, we do have access to the medicine now, I'm sure there's probably something to make somebody go to sleep in there, of course, the only sure way I could possibly get it in her system is via injection after she goes to sleep, thankfully she's not a very light sleeper. After I do that, perhaps we could lock her in somewhere."

"Good idea," Byakuya said, "however, we would probably have to get Monokuma out of the way first."

"Maybe when we get to destroying the security equipment it'll lure him out." Leon suggested.

"And then, when Monokuma is distracted," Chihiro added, "Mukuro can shut down his controls so Junko can't turn him back on when she wakes up."

"So, in this order," Makoto voiced, "drug Junko, destroy the security equipment to lure out Monokuma, shut down Monokuma, lock the sleeping Junko up, then how do we proceed?"

"While the route to the roof is being cleared," Kyoko said, "others could look for things we could use as a makeshift ladder to the ground."

"Well, obviously clearing the route to the roof will be left to the more able-bodied people here," Byakuya voiced, "so, Sakura, Mondo, and Leon. While they're doing that, everyone else can look for materials to fashion a strong enough grappling line to scale down the front of the school."

"Where do we look?" Aoi wondered, "Where would we have the best chance of finding materials for that?"

"Anywhere and everywhere," Kyoko replied, "we'll look wherever we can and take whatever we can find, like Mukuro said, we'll rip stuff out of the walls if we have to, gut the damn place."

"Hey, we're gonna be trashing the security equipment anyway," Leon voiced, "couldn't we tear the wires out of the cameras and monitors?"

"That we could," Kyoko said, "like I said, anything."

"So, that's it, right?" Makoto wondered, "We have the entire plan down?"

"That should be it," the sleuth replied, "unless anyone has anything to add or object to?"

There were no verbal responses.

"Well, all right then," Kyoko said, "tonight, the escape is on."

"I'll go find the sedative now," Mukuro voiced, "could I get some help?"

"Do you really need help to find a sedative and a syringe?" Makoto responded.

"Well, do you really think I should go off alone?" the soldier replied.

There was a long silence.

"I-I'll help look." Toko said.

"Me too." Aoi said.

The two followed Mukuro as she left to get what was needed.

"Everyone else should probably rest up for the time being," Byakuya voiced, "seeing as it sound like we're going for this late at night and into the morning, we're gonna need all the energy we can get."

With that, everyone went their separate ways, mentally preparing for the night to come.

* * *

Next chapter, it is going down!


	13. Chapter 13

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 13.

Aaaaaaaand...the Great Escape for the Ultimates is a go!

Yo, guys, this is going to be a _long_ chapter, I am not sure about the quality of this, if it's good, great, if not, then, maybe it'll show why I should not write such long chapters.

* * *

"ATTENTION STUDENTS," Monokuma announced over the monitors, "IT IS NOW 10:00 P.M., NIGHTTIME IS NOW IN EFFECT."

There was the announcement; the Ultimates went to their rooms, their escape plan was now on, all they had to do right now was leave their unlocked for Mukuro's signal.

Makoto was lying in his bed, but, like everyone else, he was not tired, not even close; so many thoughts continued to bombard his mind, his heartbeat steadily increasing as the time to act drew near.

He was confident that their plan would pull through, but, the thought of Junko or Monokuma catching them refused to leave his head. All he could think was, on the off chance they did get caught, mid-escape, what would happen to them?

Makoto just closed his eyes, trying to push all of the worst case scenarios out of his mind, forcing himself to be optimistic.

"We will get out," he told himself, "together, we will, all we have to do is stay together, it can be done, it _will _be done."

* * *

**11:30 P.M.**

Mukuro got out of bed, ready to complete her objective: Shut down Monokuma, but, first, she had to sedate her sister.

All she had to do now is give the signal, by opening everyone's dorm room doors.

One by one she opened their doors, giving a small knock afterwards to make sure they were alert. As soon as they were awake, they Ultimates began to tamper with the cameras in their rooms, pulling on them and bending them out of place, soon enough, Monokuma woke up.

"Hmm?" the bear voiced to himself, "I sense...a disturbance."

He then left Junko's "office" and went to find out what the students were doing.

At the same time, Mukuro made her way to the "office", where her sister was relaxing in her chair.

"Aaah, Jesus," the Mastermind yawned, "another boring day, leading to a boring night."

As she listened to her sister lament, Mukuro discreetly inserted the syringe she grabbed into the bottle containing the liquid sedative she had found, filling it to the required dosage.

"How could this have backfired on me," Junko whined, "I've literally created the most despairing situation possible, how has nobody even come close to their breaking point yet? From the rules to fucking bomb, how has _nothing _I've thrown at them stirred up anything!?"

Seeing how distracted she currently was, it was now or never, Mukuro quickly wrapped her arm around Junko's mouth and thrust the needle into her neck, slowly injecting the sleep aid into her system. Mukuro held tightly onto Junko as she struggled, trying to reach for the controls, possibly to summon Monokuma to the office, waiting for the drug to kick in.

Soon enough, Junko began to go limp.

"Shhhh..." Mukuro shushed, stroking her sister's hair as the Ultimate Despair slackened in her chair, "shhhh...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I had to."

Upon seeing that Junko was, in fact, asleep, Mukuro pulled the chair out of the way and pounced on the control panel and punched the button that shut Monokuma down, so hard, that it smashed beneath her fist. While she was at it, she destroyed every means of control in the room, from the panel to the monitors, to the buttons on the wall, to make sure her sister would not be able to interfere in any way, should she come to before they had escaped.

At that very moment Monokuma rushed into the hallway.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE," the bear shouted, just as his body was shutting down, "BREAKING THE SSSSSCHOOL E-E-EQ-UIP-M-MENT...IS...A-AGAINST...the...r-r-ruuuuules..." He collapsed right there, at the end of the hallway.

Then, Mukuro spoke over the announcement system.

"EVERYONE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?" she announced, "JUNKO IS SUBDUED AND MONOKUMA IS SHUT DOWN, IF WE'RE GONNA DO THIS, WE GOTTA DO IT NOW!"

With that, the Ultimates went from tampering with the security equipment in their rooms to flat-out destroying it. Whether they used the tool kits, the furniture in the rooms, or simply their bare hands, they destroyed the cameras and the monitors in all the dorm rooms. As they destroyed the equipment, they made sure to rip out the wires that made them function, to use as materials to fashion their grappling line to freedom.

As soon as they were done with their rooms, everyone ran out into the hallway, with Mukuro rejoining them.

"Is that it?" Makoto wondered.

Everyone confirmed that they had destroyed all of the security fittings in their dorms.

"All right," Kyoko affirmed, "our rooms are done, but, we've barely started, we still have three floors of monitoring materials to destroy. With Junko and Monokuma down, there's no need to be subtle or sneaky, by any means, we need to destroy it all!"

"Wait," Mukuro voiced, "someone needs to help me barricade Junko in her control room."

"I'll assist you." Sakura volunteered.

As they went to keep Junko secured, everyone else split up and went on to destroy the monitoring equipment.

Leon started in the dining hall, with Sayaka following along, and started with monitor, while Sayaka tried her hand at destroying the cameras. Leon easily annihilated the monitor by picking up a chair and hurling it at wall, destroying the screen, all it took was two more shots and the monitor fell to the floor.

Sayaka on the other hand, struggled as she tried to do the in the kitchen camera in, she found a meat tenderizer, which helped do some damage, but, the camera still stayed firmly on the wall.

"Need help?" the baseball player asked.

"I almost got it," the singer replied, still pulling on the camera, "if I could just pry it off with something."

Leon looked around the kitchen, and, without a second thought, grabbed one of the knives hanging on the wall nearby, the second largest one, and offered it to her.

"Oh, that'll work," Sayaka said, "thank you."

She then proceeded to jab the knife repeatedly into the security camera's weakened fixture.

"Ah, okay," Leon responded awkwardly, "let's be careful."

He kept expecting her to miss and accidently drive the knife into her delicate hand, thankfully, that did not end up happening, as Sayaka soon managed to get the camera loose, letting it crash to the ground. At the same time, Leon began to stomp on the remains of the already wrecked camera, just as he did the monitor. Collecting the wires that came out.

"Got it," the idol affirmed, "now I just gotta get...that one." She motioned to the camera in the dining area, hanging from the ceiling.

They both stood under the camera and looked at it closely, the obvious thing being how high up it was.

"Well," the tall redhead voiced, "that is..."

"It's _way _up there." Sayaka stated.

Leon stared at the camera, until he heard a clattering noise; he looked around and saw the knife Sayaka had used to pry the first camera down lying on the floor several feet away. He looked at Sayaka who was looking in the same direction with an awkward expression on her face.

"Did you just..." he started.

"Yeah, I tried to throw the knife at the camera," the singer admitted disconcertedly, "I don't know why I thought that would work."

"Okay," Leon said, "let's try something else."

He hoisted her up to the camera, letting her grab onto it, then he slowly lessened his hold on her, the plan being to try and use her own weight to pull the camera down. However, as it came to where she was nearly hanging freely by the camera itself, they came to a dilemma.

"Uh, I don't think it's giving," Sayaka told him, "not as fast as we would like it to, anyway, and I don't I could reach the end with the knife."

"Okay, new," the athletic one responded, "hold on tight."

she held tightly the camera while he held her more firmly and started to pull, the added stress eventually getting the job done. Just like the last pieces of equipment, Leon wasted no time stomping them to pieces, only this time with Sayaka's help. Again, they collected the wires.

"We should probably move onto the next ones." Leon said.

"Wait!" Sayaka responded.

He watched as she picked up the knife she had used and returned it to the kitchen where it belonged.

"Okay," she said, "_now _it's time to move on."

Then they left the dining hall.

* * *

At that time, in the Pool Area, others were continued to destroy the security equipment.

While they were at it, they destroyed the scanners on the doors to the changing areas, allowing anyone to access either of them without an E-Handbook. They also destroyed the machine gun, meant to punish rule breakers, mounted outside the changing rooms.

Inside the Boys' Changing Room, Mondo tore out the cameras and was about to destroy the monitor, using his bare fist. However, before he could do it, something stopped him.

"Wait!" he heard.

He turned around and found Chihiro standing behind him.

"No, not with your hand." the programmer advised.

"But, we have to destroy the monitor," Mondo replied, "and I already managed to get rid of the cameras with my hands."

"Yeah, but, that monitor screen is made of thick glass," Chihiro affirmed meekly, "that would really hurt if you tried to break it with your hand."

The biker was not really worried about sustaining any kind of injury, not for this, but, to ease the small programmer's worries, he knew he would have to find a new way to progress.

"Well," Mondo voiced, "if you can find anything else that I could use, then, let me know."

He turned back to the monitor and tried to see if he could simply pull it off the way, naturally, it ended up not being that simple.

"Ugh...eh...hey," he heard Chihiro say, "this might help."

The biker looked back again to see the computer genius struggling to hold up a good-sized dumbbell.

"Oh...right," Mondo responded awkwardly, "I forgot about that."

He took the dumbbell from Chihiro, warned him to stand back a ways, and with one quick strike, obliterated the monitor, knocking it clean from the wall.

"Whoa," an impressed Chihiro responded, "I wish I could do that."

"Maybe someday;" Mondo replied, "now, wanna help me gut this thing?"

"Yes, Sir." the programmer said in return.

They then began to tear the wiring out of the wrecked monitor.

* * *

On the third floor, near the Art Room, others were going to work on the monitoring equipment, Hifumi tried to destroy a camera by repeatedly hurling his bag at it and Kiyotaka just tried to tear one down manually. Of course, they found that neither of their own methods were doing any good.

Celeste was also having trouble, however, she then got an idea.

"Ahem," she soon called, "oh boys, I think I found a way for us to make better progress here."

They looked and found her holding three big wooden hammers from the Art Room.

"Though they're only made of wood," she affirmed, "they definitely feel like they could do some damage."

The two boys shrugged and each took a hammer, they then went back to the cameras and put them out of their misery.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sakura and Mukuro finished barricading Junko and Monokuma in the control room by moving heavy cabinets from other rooms in front of the door. When that was done, they went to find some others.

Sakura found Aoi using an old trophy to try and destroy the monitor outside the gym, though, she was having some trouble because she could not quite reach it.

"Would you like some help?" Sakura asked.

"Sakura," Aoi responded gladly, "uh, yeah, I guess I could use a hand, it's pretty high up."

The fighter hoisted the swimmer up on her shoulders, putting her right in front of the monitor. With a clear shot, Aoi raised the trophy up and threw against the screen, making it shatter to pieces. Sakura finished it off by reaching up and tearing the monitor clean off its fixtures.

"We got it!" Aoi said proudly.

"Yes we did," Sakura said, "now lets take out the wiring for our escape route."

Together they picked the monitor clean of its wires.

* * *

For hours, all fifteen Ultimates continued to destroy every piece of equipment Monokuma and Junko had set up, working together and collecting every wire, along with any other durable line, to use for their grappling line. Ex

"Is that it?" Chihiro voiced, "Did we destroy it all?"

"Almost," Makoto said, "there's still one area left we have to clear out."

They then all grabbed blunt, heavy objects and convened in front of the school's entrance, which had some of the most intimidating equipment in the whole place.

"You're sure this is all that's left?" Aoi inquired.

"We're sure," Kyoko said, "it's the only place left with security equipment."

"Well, then," Leon voiced, "what are we waiting for? Let's fuck it up already!"

"Do it, now!" Byakuya asserted.

With that, everyone proceeded to destroy _everything _in the entrance hall, from the furniture to the security materials, they left noting in one pieces. They knocked the machine guns free from the ceiling and used what they had on hand to smash them to pieces. They destroyed the controls on the door and, of course, demolished the cameras and monitor. Nothing was left untouched.

"Is that it?" Yasuhiro questioned tensely, "Did we get everything!?"

"The security equipment all throughout the building is done for," Kyoko said, "now we need to get that stairway to the roof cleared off."

"A-And we need to put our g-grappling line together!" Toko added.

"Everyone knows what they have to do right?" Makoto voiced, "you all know where you need to go?"

Once everyone confirmed their objectives, they scattered, ready to ditch the school as soon as possible.

* * *

Sakura, Mondo, and Leon began to clear away the eyesore of a barricade blocking the route to the roof, first removing the chains and wires with the toolkits from the guys' rooms, then, for clearing the rubble, Mondo used the pickaxe he found in the shed of the garden area and Leon used a shovel from the same shed, while Sakura simply used her bare hands.

"How the fuck did Junko set _this _up?" Leon wondered, driving the shovel he was using into the pile once more.

"Based on what we know," Mondo sighed, "it sounds like she had plenty of help."

"More than you know." Sakura stated.

They continued powering through the mess, until they found something strange.

"Why is this like this?" Leon noted, pointing at what looked like part of a scaffolding, lying vertically at the bottom of the rubble barricade.

"That definitely looks out of place for something that's meant to block an area off." Mondo voiced.

"Why don't try moving it and see what happens?" Sakura offered.

The three grabbed a hold of the metal beam and pulled on it as hard as they could, all it took was four good tugs to pull it free and when they did, most of the rubble that was still in place collapsed, partially revealing the door to the roof. The three of them looked on speechless, realizing that they had just dramatically reduced the amount of time they thought it would take to clear away their escape route. Without saying anything, Leon and Mondo climbed on top of the mess and proceeded to use the tools they had on hand to clear more of the rubble away, while Sakura continued to remove more of it with her hands.

* * *

Meanwhile, everyone else was hard at work trying to fashion the line they would use to scale down the front of the school. They were all sitting at one of the long lunch tables, the materials they had collected throughout the school neatly sprawled out across the tabletop, as they went on to weave and tie everything together.

"Are we sure that this is enough?" Sayaka wondered, "Is this really gonna be long enough?"

"If we do this right," Kyoko said, "we have nothing to worry about, as long as it's close enough to the ground for us to drop down safely."

"And you're sure it will be strong enough to hold everyone?" Hifumi voiced, "Because...well...do I really need to say anything?"

"Well, the fast we go down, the less stress it'll be on the line," Byakuya voiced, "so, probably don't waste any time making your way down to the bottom."

They continued putting their scraps together.

"How tall is the school exactly?" Celeste wondered.

"Well," Chihiro voiced, "that's hard to say, all we know firsthand is that there's three stories to it."

"S-So how do we judge the length of our t-tether based on that?" Toko voiced, "Because, regardless of the s-stories, the actually height the building itself can vary."

Everyone thought about it for moment.

"What if we lay it out throughout the school?" Kiyotaka proposed, "we go to third floor, then we unravel and see how far it actually goes?"

"Would that really give us a good deduction?" Yasuhiro wondered.

"Well, I don't think there's any other way to figure it out," Makoto said, "we should try it."

then, while Makoto, Kyoko, Mukuro, and Kiyotaka held onto the line, watching it from the one end, Aoi, Yasuhiro, Hifumi, and Chihiro held onto the other end, unwinding it as they quickly, but, carefully made their way down to lower floor.

Everyone on the third floor waited patiently, watching the line bob and twitch as the others stretched it out. Eventually, the line stiffened, indicating that it had reached its limit.

Just then, Makoto heard a sound emit from his phone, he pulled it out and saw Alter Ego on the screen.

"Hello," the A.I. announced, "we have found that the line reaches to about thirty feet."

"Thirty feet?" Makoto responded, "Is that even close to long enough?"

"It's long," Kyoko said, "it may not reach the ground, but, like we've already determined, it doesn't have to reach the ground, it just has to be close enough for a safe drop."

"So, what happens now?" Celeste wondered, "Do we gamble on the current length or do we make it longer?"

"We can't afford to spend too much more time on this," Byakuya affirmed, "there's no telling when Junko's sedative will wear off and when it does, there's no telling what she'll do."

Realizing that he had a point, they decided that the length they had reached would have to do.

"Alter Ego," Makoto told the A.I., "tell Chihiro that we're sticking with this length."

"Sure thing, Mr. Naegi." Alter Ego replied.

* * *

Moments later, Sakura, Leon, and Mondo joined back up with the rest of the group.

"You guys got the door cleared?" Makoto asked quickly.

"Yeah," Leon answered, "but, it's locked."

"It's okay," Mukuro said, "I have the key for it."

They gathered up their escape tether and ran to the locked door, on the other side, the way to the bomb and possibly their freedom. Mukuro quickly pulled out the key and unlocked it.

"All right," Makoto sighed fervidly, "homestretch guys, there's no turning back now."

Mukuro pulled the door open and one by one, they all ran to the stairwell, then, five flights of stairs later, everyone was on the roof.

"Oh mah God," Hifumi whined, flopping down on the cold cement, "so many stairs, so tired!"

"Christ, it was only five flights," Leon said, looking down at the otaku with disdain, then he started nudging him in the side with his foot and said, "come on, walk it off Pudge."

"Hey, quit it," the rotund artist responded with irritation, "why are you...oh...right...now I remember, we don't like each other."

"Look!" Chihiro suddenly uttered.

Just like that, everyone stopped and looked where the programmer was pointing, at the monstrous explosive device panted in the center of the roof. Chihiro, Mukuro, and Kyoko quickly approached the bomb. Mukuro investigated the device very closely, looking at it on all sides.

"Holy shit," the soldier affirmed, "that's real all right, no doubt about it."

"How the hell did she get this up here?" Kyoko questioned.

"I have no idea," Mukuro replied, "like I said, I had no knowledge of this thing before it was revealed."

"You guys _can _shut it off," Makoto wondered, rushing up beside the three, "can't you?"

"We'll try," Mukuro assured him, "I guarantee that it'll be neither fast nor easy, but, we have to try."

"Step back." Kyoko instructed him, gently pushing him back a few feet.

Kyoko and Mukuro went to work removing the screws from the timer and carefully pulling it out of place, revealing the ungodly mess of black, white, and red wires, varying in size.

"Good God." the sleuth uttered, trying to remain composed.

"And now comes the fun part." Mukuro sighed dryly.

She and Kyoko began their diligent attempt to separate and spread out the jumble of wires, checking each size and color scheme for an idea of which would be the right one to cut.

"We have to disarm _this_!?" Chihiro voiced anxiously, "Where do start? How do we figure out what to disconnect or which wire to cut? There are so many wires! I...I don't think I can help you here."

"Calm down Chihiro, that's not true," Mukuro assured him, "in fact, we need you the most right now, because, you're the only one who can figure out which wire we have to sever. You and Alter Ego."

The programmer looked on confounded.

"Me and...Alter Ego..." he mused, "...right...right, okay...okay. Yeah, I think we can do that, okay, we'll try." He then looked down at his phone, Alter Ego smiling on the screen, "Do you think we can do it?" Chihiro asked.

"I _know _we can, Master," the A.I. affirmed happily, "after all, _you_ made me and have upgraded me and utilized me to the greatest extent so far, now, all you have to do is give me my orders."

"Okay...okay," the programmer replied, his confidence slowly but surely building back up, "if you're ready, then let's get to it; Alter Ego, scan this detonator, we need you to detect which wire we need to cut."

The phone lit up as Alter Ego went into his scanning mode, the indicator shifting in all directions all over the screen. They waited for over a minute as the program registered the data regarding the scan. Then came the noise of confirmation.

"Master, I've figured it out," the A.I. announced, "but, there's an...issue."

He then brought up the results of his scan.

"I found what needs to be cut," Alter Ego informed him, "however, there's not only _one_ wire, but, ten, _ten_ wires that need to be cut and on top of that, they're prearranged in way that requires them to cut in a specific order!"

"Of course they are." Kyoko groaned in frustration.

"But, you know the order we have to cut them in, yes?" Chihiro pressed.

"I believe so," Alter Ego responded, "yes, it's all right here on the screen."

Mukuro took another look at the bundle of disjointed wires.

"Okay, Chihiro," the soldier inquired, pulling out a pair of wire cutters, "you have the answer, how do we do this?"

Chihiro looked closely at his phone screen.

"All right," he instructed her, "f-first, find and cut the thickest, white wire."

Mukuro grabbed two very thick red wires and held them together to see which was bigger by comparison.

"The one in your right hand." Chihiro confirmed.

The soldier went ahead and, with some effort, severed the first wire.

"Okay," Chihiro continued, "now you need to cut the second thickest black wire."

This time, Kyoko reached into the mess of wires and pulled out a hand full of black cords, quickly finding the right one, which she then cut.

Chihiro continued to list off the order of the wires:

The third thickest red wire

The fourth thickest white wire

The medium length black wire

The fourth smallest red wire

The third smallest white wire

The second smallest black wire

Then, finally, smallest of all, the smallest red wire.

One by one the two girls severed the critical wires in the order they were called.

* * *

Meanwhile, in her office, Junko began to awake, the sedative her sister had forcefully injected her with slowly wearing off. As everything faded back into clarity for her, she quickly began to gather her thoughts, trying to gather what had happened.

"Wha..." she wondered anxiously, "wha happened? Mukuro? She...what she did she...what did she do? She...drugged...me? That...must be it, but...why? Why did she...do that? What's happening?"

Junko then looked up and froze in shock, upon seeing her surveillance equipment and controls destroyed.

"What the!?" she gasped, bolting upright, only to stumble as she tried to stand, still groggy from the drug, "What the hell is happening? Mukuro? Mukuro!?"

The Mastermind then looked down and found the dormant Monokuma.

"Ah! No!" she cried, picking up the lifeless, animatronic bear, "Monokuma, why? How did this happened? I didn't plan for this, because...well...this wasn't supposed to happen!"

She then ran to the door and tried to open it, but, found it unable to budge. Panicking, she started to pound on the door, like a fussy child.

"Waaaaaaah! Mukuro, let me out of here!" she yelled.

When Junko realized that her action was not working, she got a new idea; she kissed Monokuma on the head, then she pulled on it until it tore off. She then reach down inside and hit a button that could manually activate the bear's self-destruct sequence. Then, Junko dropped the ticking Monokuma in front of the door and dove behind her chair, for at least a partial shield against the explosion, which blew open the door and destroyed the items used to block her in.

"It was barricaded?" Junko expressed tensely, "But, that means...*gasp*...traitors! Rebellion! Fuck!"

She quickly reached into her shirt and pulled out switch blade, then she ran off to find out what was going on in the school.

* * *

After the bomb was finally deactivated, the Ultimates decided that it was time to take a chance at escaping, but, first, they had to see how far their line went. The moment of truth, with one end secured to part of the roof, they flung the line over the side and watched it dangle down the front of the school.

"Is it long enough?" Aoi wondered, "It doesn't reach the ground, but, is it long enough for us to go down safely?"

"It looks to be about...eight to ten feet off the ground." Chihiro voiced.

As they all spoke of the situation, Makoto, standing at the very back of the group, looked on eagerly, waiting to hear what they had determined. However, with himself and everyone else so focused on the escape route, none of them noticed what was happening behind them. Suddenly, Makoto was caught off guard by an arm violently hooking around his mouth and a second hand appearing in front of his face, holding a black handle.

"Ssssshhhhhh..." he heard, the hand in front of his face pressing a button on the black handle, from which spouted a blade, nearly six centimeters long. He glanced up and found Junko gazing intently at him, while her expression was blank and almost lifeless, her stare held a sting of piercing ire. "Baaaack. Uuuup." she hissed quietly, "Walk. With. Meeeee." She began to walk backwards, her blade pressed firmly against Makoto's throat, pulling the anxious Luckster along against his will.

Makoto looked frantically at his friends, somehow still fixated on their route to safety; he needed to get their attention, but, with Junko holding a death grip on his mouth, he would have to find a non-vocal way to do so. Desperate, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and threw toward the group. The phone hit the ground and skidded to the middle of the group, the first to notice was Leon.

"What the H...OLY SHIT!" he uttered upon seeing what was happening.

With that, everyone turned around and saw the Ultimate Despair holding the Ultimate Hope at knifepoint.

"What the...how did she get up here!?" Chihiro responded quietly.

All shocked eyes were on her and still, Junko's expression never changed, it remained blank and torpid.

"So...it's like this?" Junko spoke in a jaded, monotonous tone, "I had been warned...but...I didn't actually expect it to happen." Her armed hand trembled as she dug her manicured nails into Makoto's shoulder.

No one else spoke, nobody knew what to say, they just stood there, afraid to move or speak for fear of setting the Mastermind off.

"I see...so this is how the game ends...huh? The Ultimate Despair continued in the same tone, "Betrayal, mutiny, and...of course...hope?"

Makoto's eyes darted back and forth, his heart racing, he had no idea what to do, he was afraid to even flinch, he had not expected Junko to be as strong as she was and he felt her nails digging into his arm, so hard, he swore he could feel them piercing through his sleeves.

"I'm impressed," Junko went on, her tone never changing, though her voice began to break, "honestly, I am, I tried everything I could, I made all the threats I could possibly make, yet, you still all managed to find a way out...bravo. But, I guess what I heard from you all was right...I can't...force...anyone...to feel...despair...despaaaiiiirrrrr..."

Kyoko, without saying anything began to slowly shuffled forward.

"I guess there's only one thing left I can try..." Junko sighed, "though...if a bomb threat didn't sway any of you...I doubt this will. But, fine, I concede, you guys made such an effort to escape, resisting all of my motives, not giving a shit about the state of the world now, that's just fine. Go on, get the hell out of here, I won't stop any of you, however..._this one_," she hissed, waving her knife around in Makoto's face, "stays with me, so you can all think about that, while you're enjoying your freedom out there in the now shithole world."

Only as Junko dragged Makoto back through the doorway, from which everyone had gotten to the roof, did the others finally react.

"Uh...can she do that?" Yasuhiro quietly asked nobody in particular.

"Physically y-yes," Toko responded, "ethically no."

"Best of luck." Junko spat, disappearing behind the door, along with Makoto.

A stunned silence fell over the roof.

"W-What?" Kiyotaka stammered.

"Agh..." Kyoko growled.

"Fuck!" Mondo uttered.

"No!" Chihiro cried.

* * *

Oy, I cannot believe I actually did a chapter this long, then again, it would have been senseless to split this part into separate chapters.

Anyway, the end is coming soon, let's see how this goes.


	14. Chapter 14

Ultimate Rescue

Chapter 14.

Here we go, this ends now.

* * *

After dragging him down the winding stairwell and back through the hallway leading up to it, Junko forced Makoto into a different room and locked the door behind them.

Makoto opened his eyes, having had them closed the entire time Junko had pulled him along, and found that they were in the Headmaster's office. Junko was standing in front of the door, her hand holding the switchblade trembling violently, her face void of any clear emotion, her breathing heavy.

Makoto was not sure what to say or do, never in all the times he had seen her had Junko ever displayed such behavior, usually she would be laughing, yelling, raving about despair, but, now, she was not doing anything of the sort. For the first time since he remembered, this was the first time the Ultimate Despair actually looked legitimately furious as opposed to simply being irritated, but, it was clear that it was not just that.

It then became clear to the Luckster, that the Mastermind was scared, everything she had been working towards was coming apart at the seams right in front of her eyes. She had put so much work into her "Killing Game", Everything up until now was, for the most part, going according to her plan, even when things changed, she still had a handle on the situation; but, now everything had been completely turned on its head, nobody had died, nobody was despairing, all of her intended victims seemed to have only become stronger with every shot she fired.

Junko had failed and she knew it.

Makoto looked on tensely as Junko raised her switchblade, pointing it at the chair at one of the couches.

"Sit." she hissed.

The slight brunette obliged, he slowly walked over and sat on the couch, then Junko walked over and stood in front of the table in between the two couches, standing right in front of Makoto.

The blond Mastermind and her hostage stared at each other in silence for several seconds, the only sound in the room was the incessant ticking of the clock on the wall.

Makoto tried to say something, only for Junko to hiss in response and hold her knife just inches from his face.

The numb blond closed her eyes, inhaled, exhaled deeply, then opened her eyes again.

"How?" she spoke flatly.

The brunette looked up curiously.

"How did you do it?" she questioned monotonously.

"Um...what, uh...what do you-" Makoto responded hesitantly.

Suddenly, Junko slammed her free hand against his chest, getting a tight grip on his jacket collar, and pulling him face to face with her.

"You know what I mean!" she spat, "Every time I tried something, the lot of you, especially _you_, seemed to be one step ahead of me, like you knew what was going to happen!"

Makoto cringed as he felt miniscule beads of the furious blond's spit fly onto his face.

"Did you think I didn't notice?" Junko voiced, "That ever since day one of this operation once everything was up and running, every once in a while there'd be a glitch in my surveillance equipment's audio or visuals or that everyone seemed to get settled in rather quickly?"

She was now shaking the tense Luckster.

"And I noticed right away that you were pretty quick to cozy up to everyone like you already knew them," she continued, "that everyone was quick to trust each other, like everyone had just remembered everything as quickly as they had forgotten it."

Makoto looked around nervously.

"So tell me right now," Junko demanded, violently shaking the shorter teenager back and forth, "tell me how you did it! Tell me how you knew everything!"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you!" Makoto uttered.

The shaking stopped abruptly, with Junko staring blankly at the dizzy boy; Makoto remained completely still as the blond slowly leaned towards him.

"Try me." she said flatly.

He glanced at the blade that pressed precariously against his cheek.

"You really wanna know how I knew everything?" he asked.

The Ultimate Despair said nothing as she awaited her rival's explanation.

Wracked with uncertainty, Makoto explained, in full detail, everything he knew and how everything had been done, from being contacted by the spirits of the students originally lost to the killing game to how they got everyone's memories back. As he spoke, he watched Junko closely, her expression falling with his every word. Once he finished, he waited for the blond's response.

Nearly a minute passed before Junko finally spoke.

"Huh, time travel...I shouldn't believe it..." she voiced quietly, "but...after everything I've seen...is it really that surprising? How else would you have known what was going to happen...before it happened...you've seen it all before."

Makoto nodded.

"I've also seen what happens after this as well," he voiced, reaching for his phone in his pocket, "do you wanna..."

"The cameras are still on." Junko stated softly.

The Luckster froze, confused by what she said.

"You destroyed my surveillance on the inside," Junko voiced monotonously, "but...the broadcast is still going on...people can still see what's happening here on the inside."

A questionable expression formed on her face as she stared firmly at her captive, she looked as if she were contemplating something crucial and then she got the same look she had when she talked about the feelings of despair. That brazen, salacious look.

Wary of what was about to happen, Makoto glanced at his side and found that Junko had dropped her switchblade, the blade part retracted. Unsure of what else to do, he quickly grabbed the black handle and flung it across the room. When Junko looked back to see what happened, Makoto quickly stood up from couch and shoved the tall blond over the coffee table, against the second couch, and ran for the door. Unsurprisingly, he found the door to be locked, but, before he could do anything else, Junko, who had gotten to her feet, grabbed him by his hood and viciously pulled him backwards.

"I don't care what happens," the Ultimate Despair yelled, "I'm getting _something _out of this! Somebody other than me is going to feel despair!"

She spun the shorter teenager around forced him to the ground, pinning him down as she straddled his hips.

"Junko, you don't have to do anything else," Makoto said, struggling as his rival swiftly unzipped his hoodie, holding him in place with her other hand, "just stop."

The blond did not listen, she grabbed the collar of Makoto shirt with both and forcibly tore it down the middle, revealing his bare, scrawny torso. Her behavior left her rival incredibly anxious, but, it was her next act that alarmed him. As Junko's fingers dug into the rim of his pants, Makoto panicked and quickly latched his hands around her neck and began to squeeze, which made the blond grab his wrists.

"I don't want to hurt you, Junko," Makoto affirmed, lessening his grip, "but, this has to end!"

Junko responded by slapping him in the face, then again when he did not let go of her neck the first time, as soon as he let go of her, Junko grabbed him his shoulders.

"This. Ends." she growled, repeatedly banging Makoto's head against the floor, "When. I. Say. It. Ends!"

While his hands were free, Makoto quickly dug into his pocket and took out his phone.

"Goddammit Junko," the Luckster cried, "look! Look at what happened last time!"

Junko froze as Alter Ego tapped into her mind, imbuing the events surrounding and following the killing game the first time around, showing her everything she had done and everything she had caused, even in death. When it was all over, Junko had a fixed, obviously stunned, look on her face, whatever she was feeling it was not immediately clear.

Makoto shifted, trying to remove himself from the vacant blond's hold, but, as he sat up, holding eye contact with her, Junko's eyes suddenly began to shed tears, though her expression did not change.

"J-Junko?" Makoto called softly, "Junko?"

Then, as Junko's face softened, she collapsed against her rival; Makoto remained completely still as Junko sank into his front, unsure of what to do, the shorter teen simply put his hands on the blond's back as she wept softly. After a few minutes of awkward silence with only the sound of Junko's quiet sniveling, the Ultimate Despair finally spoke.

"M...M-Makoto," Junko whimpered, "I'm scared...I'm so scared, I don't know what to do."

Makoto did not know how to respond to her, he had seen her cry before, but, not like this, before, she pulled tears for only a moment before changing her demeanor. This time, she legitimately sounded like a lost, scared little girl, there was no laughter or growling afterwards, she was not yelling or smiling psychotically, hell, she almost seemed like a normal human being.

"I did so many bad things," the Ultimate Despair continued, "I lied to so many people, I told them that I cared and that I could help them, that I was their friend, that I would look out for them and give them whatever they wanted, but, it wasn't true, none of it was true, I didn't really care about them or their problems, I just cared about getting what I wanted, regardless of what happened to them!"

"What _do_ you want, Junko?" Makoto asked quietly.

"Someone!" the blond uttered, "Anyone! Somebody I don't have to brainwash, someone I actually give a shit about, someone who actually gives a shit about me! Somebody who won't leave me behind! Somebody I won't leave behind!"

Makoto's eyes widened as Junko lifted her head to look at him with her soaked, bloodshot eyes.

"I'm tired of having to kill people just to feel something other than nothing," she lamented, "I'm tired of feeling Despair and nothing else, I...I want to be happy, I want...hope."

"Junko..." Makoto said solicitously.

"Am I allowed, Makoto?" Junko inquired meekly, "Am I allowed to have hope?"

"Well, yeah," her rival responded, "everyone should have hope."

Junko's looked on curiously, as he had said it in a way that made her think that she should have known that already.

Just then, they heard loud footsteps from outside of the room, distant, but clearly getting closer.

"Huh?" Makoto voiced, "Someone's out there?"

"Guess they didn't want to leave without you," Junko sighed, "I figured they wouldn't."

Finally, she pulled away letting the boy get to his feet, in return he pulled her to her feet as well; as soon as they were both up, Makoto, with a firm grip on Junko's hand, tried to head for the door. However, Junko did not move from where she was standing.

"What are you doing?" Junko questioned flatly.

"I was...gonna leave," Makoto offered, "I thought...I'd bring you with me."

Junko looked on in shock, then appreciation, as she shook her head.

"No..." she said solemnly, frowning, "I can't."

The blond weakly pulled her hand from her rival's.

"It would cause more trouble than it's worth if I went with you," Junko expressed, "besides, there are things I have to do, people I need to talk to; I'll leave here when I'm good and ready, but, right now, I think it would be better if nobody sees me right now."

She then turned around headed for the curtains at the back of the room.

"Well then, I'll leave the door open for you on my way out." Makoto sighed, zipping his hoodie up, as he had just remembered that it was still unzipped.

Just as Junko disappeared behind the curtains, there was a knock at the door.

"Makoto?" he heard, "Are you in there?"

It was Leon.

"Leon?" Makoto responded, "I'm here."

He then tried the door, only to find that Junko had busted the lock.

"But, the lock is broken," the Luckster affirmed, "I can't get the door open."

"I got it," the baseball player instructed, "step back a ways."

Makoto moved away from the door, then, after confirming his position, there were two loud bangs against the door.

"Almost got it." Leon said.

Then, with a third strike, the door flew open, as the tall redhead kicked the door open, right then, Makoto grabbed his phone and sent a text to Kyoko, telling her that he was okay and Leon had found him.

"Ah, that wasn't so hard," Leon voiced, "sorry nobody got here sooner, it's just, between getting the roof door open again and having to search all the rooms-"

He was cut off when the shorter boy suddenly hugged him.

"Huh?" the athletic one responded, "Hey, what happened, are you okay?"

"I'm...not sure." Makoto replied dismally.

Confused, but mindful, the baseball player hugged him back.

"Come on, let's go back to the others." Leon said.

Makoto checked his phone and saw that Kyoko had responded.

"They're all waiting by the entrance." Makoto affirmed, looking at the text.

They left the room, making their way toward the entrance, the redhead keeping an arm around the Makoto's shoulder's as the Luckster clung to his side.

* * *

Down by the school's heavily armed, reinforced front door, the survivors of the killing game, old and new, were waiting for the moment they could finally open the door.

An impatient Kyoko was just about to leave the area to go look for Makoto and Leon, when said boys entered the area.

"Found him," Leon said, "he was in the Headmaster's office."

Kyoko quickly, yet casually, hurried over and hugged the Luckster, who hugged her back.

"What happened to Junko?" Chihiro wondered.

"She...left," Makoto replied, "we don't have to worry about her anymore...hopefully."

"So, that's it," Mondo responded, "we can leave?"

Makoto nodded.

"All right," Aoi said, "well then, let's get that door open!"

Mukuro held up the remote control set to open the door.

"Y-You know," Toko voiced, "the past has been changed, u-undone, things are going to be different out there, d-drastically different."

"She's right," Byakuya affirmed, "we don't know what awaits us out there this time."

"But, whatever is out there," Makoto avowed, "we'll be ready for it, because we'll face it together."

Hifumi leaned forward eagerly, while Celeste looked on mellowly, Kiyotaka and Chihiro clung to Mondo's side, and Sayaka grabbed Leon's hand, he was surprised, but, nonetheless, he squeezed her hand in return.

Finally, Mukuro pressed the button on the remote and everyone watched in anticipation as the door slowly opened.

"Maybe someone should go out there first and make sure it's safe to exit?" Yasuhiro voiced.

"Good idea," Byakuya said, "tell us what you see when you get out there."

"What!?" the clairvoyant responded tensely, "I didn't mean me!"

"Ugh," Toko groaned, "I'll go first."

The writer walked ahead of everyone and carefully stepped through the door, several seconds of silence went by before she spoke again.

"Whoa, everyone," she called, "come see this."

With that, the rest of the survivors walked through the door, once outside, they saw just what Toko had found, a massive crowd of people standing just outside the gates of Hopes Peak Academy. As soon as everyone had exited the school, every person in the crowd began to clamor joyfully, many of them applauding.

"Well, this is new." Byakuya stated.

"Yeah," Aoi said, "this did _not_ happen last time."

"Junko said that even though the building's surveillance equipment was destroyed the equipment that televised what was going on inside still worked," Makoto explained, "so, everyone who was watching outside saw everything."

"And this time," Kyoko added, "they got to see a happier ending."

"Though, with alternate endings," Toko voiced, "come alternate storylines."

"You're right," Makoto said, "so, let's see what this one has in store for us out there."

* * *

Oh God, finally, it is finally done and over with! At last I can put this thing to rest.

I am sorry if this was not the ending everyone was hoping for, it certainly was not the one I was hoping for. Believe me, I cannot express how painful it was to spar Junko in this, it's just, as I thought about where I wanted to go with this, the stories that would follow this, it dawned on me that in order for future fics following this one to work, Junko had to survive, as much as it kills me, for the sake of story telling, she had to get out of this alive. Don't get me wrong, things will not be good for her, they will only get worse, I swear on my honor that Junko will suffer as long as I decide. Not just her, but, other characters who I felt got out of the games way too easily will suffer too. Nagito, I am coming for you, asshole (sorry Nagito fans, I don't hate him, but, no way in hell am I letting him off the hook).

I'm sorry if this ending was underwhelming, but, between pieces/fics piling up, people asking me to update, and the fact that I really want to move on to more DR fics, I _had _to get it done, it was time for it to end. There were a lot of things I had to change or leave out in order to make this work, like, I chose not to show the group breaking back into the school to look for Makoto because, that would have led to a mess of dialogue repetition, you know "nobody gets left behind" and all that, and Junko's "scuffle" with Makoto was cut short, because, if I would have followed through with it, I would have had to bump the rating up to M, and I did not want to have to change the rating just for the last chapter.

You get it, it's over, I'm happy, time to move on. One less thing weighing my already stressful life down.


End file.
